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Book -K 55 

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CHAPEL TALKS 



By 



DANIEL CLARK KNOWLES 

II 




New York: EATON & MAINS 
Cincinnati: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 



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Copyright, 1910, by 
EATON 8c MAINS. 



©CI.A256345 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The New Year , 7 

Lifework io 

Character-Building n 

Getting Light 13 

Beliefs Important 15 

Personal Effort 17 

Flabby Wills 18 

Self-Government . 20 

Getting the Grade 23 

Family Duties 26 

Veracity 29 

Honesty 32 

Manner 35 

Observations on Building 37 

The Value of Pain 39 

Pemigewasset River 41 

WlNNIPESAUKEE RlVER 44 

Discord 45 

A Standard of Right Needed 48 

The Standard of Right 50 

The Sin of Neglect 55 

Obeying Conscience 58 

National Assimilation 61 

Philosophy of Life 64 

Training 67 

Polish 70 

Soul Soil 72 

Seed Selection 74 

Lofty Purposes 78 

Light Insufficient 80 

Defective Conscience 84 

Right Revealed 87 

Whence Comes Right? 89 

The Soul's Majesty 92 

False Teachers 95 

3 



4 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Worm Philosophy 98 

True Science 100 

Enthusiasm 105 

A Steam Engine .• 108 

Vocal Organs no 

Ivy Vines 112 

Self-Mastery 114 

A Genuine Life 118 

Be Clean 121 

Sunlight , 125 

Christmas 128 

Faith 131 

Solitude 134 

How David Improved Solitude 138 

Prayer 142 

Muffled Sins 145 

Parental Training 148 

Silent Influences 151 

Dark Days 153 

Life's Dark Problems 155 

Strong Characters 158 

Love Triumphant 161 

A Fad 163 

The Plan of Life 166 

Political Slavery 168 

Prophecies 170 

Seeking Truth 174 

Gyroscope 177 

Gravitation 179 

Innocence and Guilt 182 

Life Choices 185 

Socialism 189 

Politeness 193 

Reverence 196 

Self-Respect 200 

Spiritual Force 202 

The Great Consolation 205 

In Memoriam 207 



PREFATORY STATEMENTS 

, The talks that form the subject-matter of this 
book are selected from many others that were 
given Wednesday mornings to the students of 
Tilton Seminary. The speaker never anticipated 
their preservation in permanent form until urged to 
permit it by many friends and by a formal request 
from his Annual Conference. For some time a 
competent stenographer without his knowledge had 
taken these talks by request of the President of the 
school, and he was surprised to find them thus pre- 
served. 

Not a line was written beforehand, and they have 
undergone only a slight revision to insure accuracy 
and to eliminate some redundancies incident to ex- 
temporaneous speech. Otherwise they are printed 
just as they fell from his lips, which accounts for 
their conversational tone and directness of appeal. 

With these explanatory remarks, these talks are 
put forth, like wireless telegrams, into the unknown, 
spiritual ether, with the hope that they may be 
caught up by some souls attuned to their message 
and be transmuted into holy character. It is be- 
cause of this hope that the undersigned consents to 
their publication. 

D. C. K. 



CHAPEL TALKS 



The New Year 

I have been connected with this institution for 
eighteen years, and I must frankly confess that I 
have never seen a more interesting sight than that 
which presents itself this morning. I have never 
seen so large a body of students gathered here ; and 
looking into your faces it seems to me that there is 
brightness and earnestness that prophesies great 
things for this school through you. 

You have come here from various homes, and 
each one of these homes represents, doubtless, a 
different ideal of life. Your training has not all 
been the same. You have had a mother's love and 
a father's care, and they have tried to do their duty, 
but they have not all had the same ideals of life, and 
they have not all trained their children in the same 
way. They have looked upon life with different 
eyes, and possibly have not all been actuated by the 
same purposes for their children; but you have 
gathered up their teachings, and you present your- 
selves here, having been taught some in one way 
and some in another. 

Now, what will you do with yourselves? What 
will you do with the instructions of the past? You 

7 



8 CHAPEL TALKS 

have been taught to reverence your parents ; to take 
their principles into your life, and to live by these 
parental instructions. Will you turn your back 
upon such influences? Will you forget the sweet, 
precious counsels of a loving mother? Will you 
adopt lower ideals of life? Will you learn to re- 
gard your parents as in some respects "old fogies," 
when they have taught you the higher interests of 
the soul ? Sometimes that is the case when persons 
go away from home. 

It is a crisis in any young life when it leaves its 
home for the first time. It may lead to a great im- 
provement, and it may be the beginning of degen- 
eration. When a boy leaves the sweet atmosphere 
of his fireside and goes to the city, who knows what 
will become of him when subject to the new sur- 
roundings? Will he fall under the power of evil 
associations, will he listen to evil counsels, will he 
learn to disregard the habits of his childhood — 
what will he do? That God only knows. Mother's 
prayers and mother's counsels may be despised 
when one goes away from home. You are in a 
measure, here, your own counselor — it must be so 
necessarily. You are surrounded by Christian in- 
fluences, but you may reject them. Your sensibili- 
ties may become blunted. Conscience may be dis- 
regarded. You may go down, or you may go up. 
You may become better, or you may become worse. 
You may forget the instructions of childhood, you 
may cease to obey them, and accept other counsels 



CHAPEL TALKS 9 

and other associations according to the changed 
tastes of your heart; or you may accept even better 
counsels and better instructions than even those of 
a loving mother. 

Now, what shall it be? You are just beginning 
life. We shall have many things to say to you in 
the future. This is the key of all that we shall say : 
Be true always to your conscience. Be true to your 
sense of duty. If you have been beautifully trained 
in your home, let nothing come in in your school life 
to mar the refinement of your character, but become 
more conscientious, more beautiful in your conduct, 
more discreet, more ladylike, more gentlemanly in 
your bearing with others. Seek every day to build 
that kind of a character that will charm all who be- 
hold you, so that when you go home father and 
mother will say, "It has been a blessed thing for 
my boy, for my girl, to have gone to that school." 

I was talking with an educator Monday morning, 
and he said to me, "I like to recommend your 
school. I cannot do that with all schools." Said 
he, "A father came to me a few days ago and said, 
'My boy went to a certain institution ; he has come 
back to me not as good as when he went.' " Now, 
that is an awful thing to say. Do not let it be said 
of any one of you. Here this morning vow to your- 
selves, "I will try to be true. I will be a comfort to 
my father and mother." At the very commence- 
ment of the year, may this be the purpose of your 
heart, and then you will gladden your home when 



io CHAPEL TALKS 

you return to it, improved, beautified, prepared for 

service. 

Lifework 

Have you ever noticed the varieties of engines 
used by railroad corporations ? There's the express 
engine, light, graceful, built for speed and long 
runs; the freight engine, heavy, strong in every 
detail, constructed to draw long trains over diffi- 
cult grades ; the small, trim engine of light weight, 
adapted to run swiftly over short lines; and the 
shifter, an engine without a cowcatcher, used to 
make up trains in the yard and shift cars in a 
freight station. 

How absurd it would be to put a great Mogul 
engine to do the work of a shifter, or a yard engine 
without a cowcatcher to haul express trains which 
require great speed! And isn't the same principle 
true of human society? God has fitted men for 
special tasks and occupations. They are built on 
different patterns for special work. Some are made 
light and versatile for swift service, others are pon- 
derous and weighty to manage great and important 
interests of world-wide connections, while others 
still are fashioned for local duties. 

Now, it is of supreme importance to us, young 
people, to find our true place in the world of action. 
Society is sadly out of joint for lack of proper ad- 
justment. Many men are not in their right places. 
The shifter is trying to do the work of the express, 
and cannot make time, while many really great men 



CHAPEL TALKS n 

are doing small jobs in the little by-stations of the 
world. 

This is preeminently true in public life. Our jin- 
goism in Congress is largely due to noisy men of 
small caliber who have been elevated by machine 
politics into spheres for which God never intended 
them. Every department of social and public life 
is handicapped by the same mistakes. 

How can this sad state of things be corrected? 
Only by a wise measuring of our own powers in 
early life. You young people ought to begin now 
the honest study of your natural aptitudes and 
powers and not despise the counsels of your elders. 

Do not be in a hurry to decide your calling. Get 
a good equipment, a broad general education, as 
full and complete as your circumstances will per- 
mit, and if you are still in doubt, watch for the 
openings of Providence. And when the gates of 
opportunity swing open and you find yourself in- 
vited to some field of action, enter the open path- 
way without fear, give yourself to the task set be- 
fore you with unreserved fidelity and self -conse- 
cration, and it will not be long before you will know 
God's plans for your earthly career. 

Character-Building 

A short time since, I called your attention to the 
construction of the steel towers of the new Brook- 
lyn Bridge. I showed you how solidly they were 
built on foundations of rock, and how vividly they 



12 CHAPEL TALKS 

illustrated the necessity of laying the basis of our 
lives on God's will. 

But why build towers at all? I pointed out that 
their uses were to carry the superstructure of the 
bridge. 

This morning I ask you to consider how that 
superstructure was erected, and learn some lessons 
from the process. 

First the builders took over a little steel strand, 
not larger than a knitting needle ; then another and 
another, and these they twisted into a small wire 
rope, and repeated the process until they had built 
up a large cable, six inches in diameter, and strong 
enough to bear the strain of a thousand tons. 
Other cables were constructed in the same manner, 
resting on these lofty towers until they were capa- 
ble of supporting the vast floor over which should 
pass the living freight of a city's commerce. 

Here, young people, you have a life lesson. 
Your character is like the Brooklyn Bridge. It is 
made of the tiniest strands twisted together. What 
are the strands ? Thoughts, feelings, choices. These 
bring forth actions. Actions, repeated, form habits. 
Habits make the cables of character, and on these 
hang the issues of life. 

In infancy you have no character. You have in- 
herited tendences, but no character. Character is a 
product. Each soul builds it by its own conduct. 
You are now building a superstructure more lasting 
than the Brooklyn Bridge. 



CHAPEL TALKS 13 

Yesterday I saw a boy on the street walking with 
his toes turned inward at an angle of forty-five de- 
grees. I watched him eagerly to see if it was his 
natural gait, when I discovered he was doing it for 
fun. Now, that was a little thing, but it was a 
dangerous act. Repeated often enough, and he 
might have lost the grace and ease of his natural 
movement. 

You are all builders. Every act of your lives is a 

strand in the formation of a character. You are 

making habits of thought, habits of feeling, habits 

of choice which will determine who you are. You 

are weaving a fabric for eternity ; and I implore you 

to pause at the beginning of your school life here, 

and reflect on the importance of the work you are 

doing, and the necessity of listening to the counsels 

of experience. 

Getting Light 

Sometimes you go into your rooms at night and 
all is dark. There hangs your electric light over 
your table, but darkness reigns everywhere. This 
whole building might be full of electric fluid, but 
your room would be dark and gloomy until you 
turned the electric button. That little act would 
fill the room with light. Whether you sit in dark- 
ness or light depends on you. 

So it is in our spiritual life. God gives us natural 
life without our effort, but spiritual life comes by 
a personal process. 

There is spiritual life all about us. The world 



i 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

is full of it, as it is full of God. The doctrine of 
the immanence of God is almost a fad in these days. 
It is a truth as old as Scripture, but how many dis- 
regard its realities! The Bible is full of spiritual 
life. And the universe may truly be said to be pal- 
pitating with spiritual life. But you and I can walk 
forever in spiritual darkness, unless we make a con- 
nection with this light by an act of ours. 

What is that act? It is the intelligent choice of 
obedience to God's will. This is what Jesus meant 
when he said, "If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine." Any soul that honestly and 
completely resolves to be obedient to his Creator, 
by that act of supreme choice puts himself in con- 
nection with the spirit forces of the universe, turns 
the button in the lamp of life, and floods his soul 
with its rich illuminations. 

That is what is meant by becoming a Christian. 
How simple the formula! All outward forms and 
ordinances may be valuable in their spheres, but this 
one act of the soul is the only necessitated condition 
of getting light. 

What we all need to make life a success is spir- 
itual light. Without it, we shall surely stumble in 
deepest darkness. Therefore, in your school days 
I urge you to make obedience to God the first law 
of your life; and whenever you go into your room 
and by a simple act let the electric fluid give you 
clear vision, remember the greater glory that will 
burst upon you if, by your own free choice, you 



CHAPEL TALKS 15 

throw yourself in fullest submission at the feet of 

your Lord. 

Beliefs Important 

You have heard it said, "It does not matter what 
a man believes, provided he is sincere, honest.'' 
Now that sounds very beautiful, but no falser state- 
ment was ever uttered than that. It is a very 
dangerous one. Let me repeat it. It is said, "It 
does not matter what a man believes, provided he is 
sincere in his convictions.'' 

Yesterday a man paid an awful penalty for an 
awful crime. Now, I am not certain but that man 
was sincere in his anarchical sentiments. I am not 
certain but those principles born of hate and envy 
and jealousy, born of a wicked disposition, were 
imbibed by the assassin of President McKinley, and 
held sincerely. In a certain sense, at any rate, he 
has held to them to the last, and has seemed to feel 
that he has done just right. He believed that it did 
not matter whether there was government or not; 
he believed that law was wrong; he believed that 
all in authority were tyrants, and acting on that be- 
lief became a murderer. He was surrounded from 
his childhood with the atmosphere of the rum shop^ 
He had been a saloon keeper. So had his father. 
Grown up in that atmosphere, he accepted these 
anarchical principles and held them as right. And 
what was the result? Crime, murder, and an awful 
penalty. 

If you accept an error you have to pay for it. 



16 CHAPEL TALKS 

Somewhere in life it will bring its appropriate re- 
sults. It will bring sadness to you and suffering. 
If you find out the truth, if you receive the truth 
and live by it, inevitably it will bring its proper con- 
sequences — innocency, purity, everlasting life. 

Now, do not accept that false sentiment. It is 
of the utmost importance that you and I should 
find out truth, especially moral and spiritual truth. 
We need a teacher who can speak from God, for 
God, and speak as God; and, thank God, we have 
it. You and I can imbibe the teachings of Jesus 
Christ, and when we have mastered them and 
understood them we can be certain that we have 
eternal truth; and when we accept those teachings 
as the convictions of our life and fashion our char- 
acters by them, inevitably there will result ever- 
lasting life. 

You can take the opinions of men, the strange 
and devious instructions of human philosophy, but 
you are going to have inevitably a twisted, con- 
torted character. You have all the consequences of 
false convictions. I wish to impress upon you this 
morning the necessity of finding truth, especially 
truth as to duty, truth as to our relations to the 
Infinite, truth as to our relations to society, truth 
as to our relations to each other and to ourselves, 
and if you master that truth and live by it, inevi- 
tably there will work out a character that will de- 
light God and man. 

I was impressed with that thought yesterday, the 



CHAPEL TALKS 17 

day of the doom of that misguided man. He got 
into bad society. He imbibed bad principles. He 
committed crime as the result of those principles. 
He has suffered the penalty. And so shall we if we 
adopt erroneous sentiments and hold to them. 
However sincere, however honest we may be, we 
cannot escape the results. They will leave their 
mark on us. They will shape our dispositions and 
characters wrongfully because they are wrong in 
themselves. 

O, it is of infinite consequence what are the con- 
victions of our minds, what are the beliefs of our 
souls. A false belief may not ruin us forever, but 
it will leave a scar, it will take away perfection in 
conduct and spirit, it will work out its bad results. 

Personal Effort 

If you had a bushel of corn in your woodshed 
and you left it there, you would never expect a 
crop of corn. That corn might be the very best in 
quality, every grain might have in it the potency of 
life; but you know very well that if you did not 
take it out, and put it into the ground where the 
sun could warm it, and the rains water it, you could 
never get any harvest. 

Now, you may have the very best of wishes in 
your soul. You may wish to be a good scholar. 
You may long to know all in the text-books, but if 
you do not do anything more than that, you know 
you will never be a scholar. It is a great thing to 



18 CHAPEL TALKS 

have good wishes — they are the seeds of the soul; 
but if you do not do anything with them, how are 
you going to get a crop of character ? 

If I should go through this school and talk with 
each individual, I have no doubt if you spoke your 
honest sentiments, every one of you would say to 
me, "I would like to be a scholar. I would like to 
know my text-books. I would prefer to be bright 
rather than dull, wise rather than stupid." There 
is not one of you but would talk that way. But you 
know that will not make you a scholar. You have 
to go to work, you must do something, you have to 
put that seed in good soil, in proper environment. 

Now, take this little simple lesson home with 
you. Don't forget it. When you want to do any- 
thing that is just right, when the heart yearns for 
it, that is the good seed; but the soul has to say, 
"What must I do now to get a harvest? What 
must I do? I must do something — I must! I 
must get right at it." If you want to be a good 
Christian, you must arise and say, "God helping 
me, I will — I will, now." "I want to be better; I 
will, I will put forth the effort just now." That is 
the way to grow. That is the way to get a hundred- 
fold of harvest, and there isn't any other. 

Flabby Wis 

There is a disease common to human beings, or 
to some at least, that is not mentioned in medical 
books. It is not peculiar to any particular season 



CHAPEL TALKS 19 

of the year, but is greatly aggravated when the 
springtime comes. It is not a disease of the body 
at all — it is a disease of the soul. But its symptoms 
are always manifest in the body. 

There is an expressive word in the English lan- 
guage that reveals what that disease is — and that 
word is slouchy. I have seen that disease in chapel 
in days gone by. A boy comes in, and instead of 
sitting down as if he mastered himself, held himself 
under the control of his intelligent spirit, he slides 
down into his seat — sits down like a burst bag of 
sand. I have seen, sometimes, a boy coming into 
class and instead of marching like a masterful 
soul to his seat, he would throw himself down, or 
fall down, or half lie down, as if he had no com- 
mand of his muscles. It is the flabbiness of the 
will that I am talking about — a slouchy method of 
acting or moving. 

Now, that is a very serious disease for anyone to 
have. I call your attention to it. I have noticed 
it in some of our classes. It is rather painful to see. 
It is contagious somewhat by its example. Let us 
get command of ourselves while we are young. 

Military discipline is not a bad thing in some 
respects. If you were to visit West Point you 
would see that the cadets, when they go to the black- 
board to recite a proposition in geometry, or some 
other mathematical proposition, all stand erect. 
They are required to. Every movement is grace- 
ful. Their heels must be put together; and they 



so CHAPEL TALKS 

stand precisely like the man who led the Boston 
Symphony Orchestra a few days since — did you 
notice how firm he stood in his tracks — his back 
was turned to you, but did you see what a military 
air he had? He had command of himself. There 
was not a bit of slouchiness about his movements. 
It would not be allowed in West Point. 

This flabbiness of the will is a serious symptom. 
Please remember that education is not simply get- 
ting facts out of books; it is getting self-mastery, 
it is doing away with that native flabbiness of the 
soul, it is getting command of the body, it is hold- 
ing ourselves in reserve under control of an 
intelligent will. Let us make it a part of our school 
system. See now when you go into the classes and 
sit down in your seat that you sit down — do not 
fall down, or lie down. When you come into the 
chapel, walk in with a firm step — do not come in in 
a slouching way. 

W T hen the spring comes this disease is greatly 

aggravated. It assumes a form of laziness, general 

laziness everywhere. O, let us banish it from our 

school ! 

Self-Government 

One great duty to ourselves is that of self- 
government. When we are little we are governed 
by our parents — or ought to be — because we do not 
know enough to govern ourselves. As we grow up 
we are partly governed by parents and teachers and 
partly by ourselves; but there comes a time when 



CHAPEL TALKS 21 

we are thrown out for self-government. God will 
advise, instruct, and command, but he will not 
govern. He leaves that to you and me. 

How shall we govern ourselves? What shall be 
the principle ? What force shall direct the will, or 
if not govern it, at least direct it in its choices? 
Shall we be governed by the lower or the higher 
nature? Shall we be governed by appetite, by de- 
sires, or by conscience, by prudence, by right ? That 
is the question that we decide. O, how many there 
are who choose to be ruled by appetite, and ruin 
themselves! How many there are who are gov- 
erned by their desires, and ruin themselves ! How 
many are governed by conscience and right, will- 
ingly and freely ? That is the question. 

It does not make any difference to a barrel of 
flour when it is transported from the West to the 
East, whether it stands on its bottom or on its top. 
The flour will come through just the same. It does 
not make any difference which side is up. But there 
are some boxes that you see in transportation that 
have marked on them, "Glass — this side up with 
care." It is a serious matter for that box to be 
turned upside down — the valuables in it may be 
broken, destroyed. Just so with you and me. God 
has stamped on us, "A man, a moral being, this side 
up with care." It is written on all our souls. And 
when you are governed by appetite or desire or 
your lower nature you are turned upside down, and 
ruin is the result. God made man to be governed 



22 CHAPEL TALKS 

by his conscience — this side up always with care. 
He has written that on the soul. 

What is it to get religion? It is to be put right 
side up. What is it to be a Christian? It is to be 
right side up — it is to be governed by conscience 
and duty, rather than appetite or desire. 

Do you remember in the Scriptures it tells us 
about the rude people of a certain city saying, "The 
men who are turning the world upside down are 
come hither, also ?" What were Paul and his com- 
panions doing? Getting men right side up — that 
was all. This poor world is turned upside down — 
the mass of men are governed by appetite, selfish- 
ness, unholy desire. God wants them to be gov- 
erned by conscience, and to choose freely to control 
themselves by these principles of duty and right. 
And that is what is going on in the world. That is 
what Christ came to accomplish. That is what 
Christianity means — simply rectifying the evil of 
man and bringing him to his right relations, so that 
that which is marked, "A moral being — this side up 
with care," shall be carried through life the right 
side up. And that comes from our choice. By 
what are we governed, you and I? It is a serious 
question this morning. 

And after we get right side up, it is not a very 
impossible thing for us to turn ourselves back. A 
man who has been governed by his own free choice, 
by conscience, may, under temptation, by the exer- 
cise of that same free choice, turn himself upside 



CHAPEL TALKS 23 

down and reverse the order and be governed by ap- 
petite, and ruin his own soul. Therefore every 
choice has in it a fearful responsibility. 

Therefore, how shall we keep ourselves right side 
up ? How shall we control this lower nature ? By 
the conscience and the principles of righteousness. 
Just one secret we have to observe, and that is, take 
care of your thinking. A defiled imagination will 
invert the order of life very quickly. If you think 
good thoughts, if you love to obey the principles of 
righteousness, if you are ardent students of God's 
holy commandments, if you love the right, if you 
seek it, if you think about these things and act in 
harmony with them, you will always be right side 
up. But if you let your thoughts go, if you do not 
hold your thoughts to the best, it will not be long 
before you will be inverted, and ruin will follow. 

Getting the Grade 

I am now talking to you about duties to yourself. 
Let us begin right. 

The first duty man owes to himself is to fix his 
grade on which to build his character. Many years 
ago this town was started without any grade. A 
few years ago it was proposed to concrete Main 
Street, and an engineer was secured who fixed the 
grade of the village. If you will go down opposite 
the bank you will see a house that is below grade — 
the street is higher than the first floor of the house ; 
to get into the house you have to go down. The 



24 CHAPEL TALKS 

grade was not fixed, and the foundations of the 
house were laid too low. 

Some of you may know that the city of Chicago 
is built on a plane, almost as level as this floor ; and 
when they came to put in sewerage, the grade of the 
city was so low for sewerage that they had to raise 
the whole city, and before they concreted the streets 
they raised every house. They would put number- 
less jacks under blocks — whole blocks of brick 
buildings — and raise them up from five to ten feet, 
so that all of Chicago has been lifted up, at great 
expense, because the grade was not fixed right. 

You and I are building characters for eternity. 
Let us be sure we fix the grade where God intended 
it should be put before we begin to build. God fixed 
the grade when he made Adam. Adam began to 
build on the grade God had set for him; but he 
sinned, and brought his grade down into the mud ; 
and from that hour the whole race has been build- 
ing on the mud, rather than on God's grade. 

What is conversion ? It is getting back on God's 
grade — that is all. It is lifting up the character so 
that we can build ourselves on the grade that our 
heavenly Father has established. What is that 
grade? It is this — Jesus has set it: "Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy might, mind, and strength, and thy neighbor 
as thyself." That is the grade for humanity, for 
the race. 

It is the misfortune of almost all of us that when 



CHAPEL TALKS 25 

we come into this world we pay no attention to the 
grade He has established — we begin to build our 
character without regard to our heavenly Father's 
will and command. We build on the low grade of 
selfishness — each man seeks his own pleasure rather 
than the love of our Father and the love of our 
neighbor. We adopt the maxim, "Look out for No. 
1 — build your character for yourself, without re- 
gard to your neighbor." That is what is the matter 
with the world. And you will never get rid of your 
labor problems, these unions will never do right, 
until men begin to build where God intended they 
should build — on the high grade of love to God and 
love to man. 

What does the human race need ? It needs to be 
lifted up, like Chicago. The race is building down 
in the mire. We need to build our characters upon 
the high grade that God has established, and then 
we will be right, and the sorrows of the world will, 
in great measure, pass away. 

Who can raise us up? You might as well say 
that a man can lift himself up by taking hold of his 
boot straps, as to say that a man can lift himself up 
to the grade that God has ordained. You must get 
God under you. The Holy Spirit must lift you up, 
just as the jacks raised those great buildings in 
Chicago. God alone is adequate to do that. O, if 
we could take every child born into this world, 
and by instruction and prayer and the Divine Spirit 
could get every child lifted up to the level of love, 



26 CHAPEL TALKS 

and build his subsequent character on that high 
level, what a transformation in society ! The king- 
dom of Jesus would be established, and the millen- 
nial hour would be here. 

The first duty that you and I owe to ourselves is 
this — to fix the grade of life; and that grade is just 
what Jesus has told us, and I have told you — "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
thy neighbor as thyself." Are we building on that 
grade? If so, all subsequent activities will be on 
the right line. Behold, the beautiful edifice of a 
human character will be erected that will be a joy 
to ourselves and to the angels forever. 

Family Duties 

Duties to others! Let us look at family rela- 
tions, and see what is the duty of the various mem- 
bers of the household to each other. What are the 
duties of children to their parents ? To obey them, 
to honor them, to love them, to help them in old 
age, to live for their comfort, to be grateful to them 
for all that they have done — in other words, to be 
filial and noble children. 

What is the duty of parents to their children? 
That is the main subject of the morning. A 
parent's duty is to care for the little ones in their 
helplessness, to give them food, raiment, shelter, 
and love ; to give them as good an education as they 
can afford; to care for them wisely, treating them 
as moral beings, teaching them their relations to 



CHAPEL TALKS 27 

their God, training them up to piety — all these are 
recognized as the duties of parents. 

But I want to speak to you of one particular duty 
that is too often disregarded, and that is this: No 
parent is a wise parent who does not teach his chil- 
dren to work. Work is God's colaborer in salva- 
tion. When man became rebellious God cursed the 
ground for man's sake, and said, "Now you must 
eat of the fruit thereof by the sweat of your brow; 
that is your only hope." And parents sometimes 
forget God's method of saving their children. A 
few days ago a young man was married in New- 
port. When he went to get his certificate — on that 
certificate there was put down, "What is your oc- 
cupation?" — he wrote "Gentleman." Had he writ- 
ten "A nuisance" it would have been truer. What 
he meant by that was that he was a man who does 
not work, and hence he called himself a gentleman. 
As if a man who works is not a gentleman! 

Some years ago I was talking with a father who 
was almost broken-hearted over the waywardness 
of his boy, and he wanted to know what I should 
advise him to do. "Put him to work," said I; 
"make him earn his bread." "O," said he, "he 
would not stand that!" I suppose he thought he 
would run away. Well, I would have let him run 
until he suffered the pangs of the stomach. 

Now, a parent's duty to a child when he is little 
is to teach him to sweep the barn, or to cultivate a 
garden, and get some sweat out of his brow; or, if 



28 CHAPEL TALKS 

it be a girl, to wash the dishes, to help her mother, 
and not to sit in the parlor, or flaunt her ribbons 
and her stunning hats on the street when her mother 
is toiling for her happiness. That is a poor kind of 
training. And a parent who will permit his chil- 
dren to grow up in that way does not do his duty 
to them. 

I know a very wise man who when his children 
were sent away to school said to the head of the 
institution, "I do not want you to have any trouble 
with my boys. If they do wrong, send them to me 
and I will put them to the plow. I do not want 
them to trouble you." Now, if parents would talk 
that way there might be fewer in school, but those 
who were would be of such noble caliber that our 
schools would become famous the world over for 
their product. 

We have too much money in this country, I fear, 
for the country's good. Multitudes of our boys and 
girls are simply going to the bad who might be 
saved by losing a little honest sweat out of their 
brows. There are homes — homes of wealth and 
culture— out of which come splendid, trained char- 
acter — educated young women who go into the 
slums of the city and work to bless somebody, to 
help the poor and the fallen. They do not sit down 
in the parlor and say, "I have nothing to do." I 
know a young lady who belonged to a wealthy 
family, and when she had graduated she said to her 
parents, "I want to become a trained nurse." They 



CHAPEL TALKS 29 

did not think that that was just adapted to her po- 
sition in the world, and they forbade her, until she 
began to decline in health because they would not 
let her enter into the work she wanted to do. 
Finally they realized what the trouble was, and that 
the only hope of saving her life was to allow her to 
take up her chosen work, and they said to her, "You 
may go." And she entered a hospital as a nurse, 
and there she toiled in the most repulsive drudgery 
until she became trained in nursing, and she became 
a splendid specimen of womanhood. 

Let us never despise toil — it is God's method of 
saving men. If we had to earn the money that we 
put into our athletic sports there would be less sport, 
but more manhood — wouldn't there ? Some of our 
young people have too much pocket money; we 
know too little its value because we have not earned 
it. Tell your parents what I am saying about it — 
that wisdom requires that they train their children 

to honest toil. 

Veracity 

Forty years ago I wrote in an album, "Duty is a 
charmed word." I saw that not long ago. It was 
the great preacher Robertson who said, "When the 
world begins to stop talking about its rights and 
begins to talk about its duties, then the new age 
will come." 

We are talking about duties to others now. And 
one of the most important duties to others is to tell 
the truth. We have had in ethics the subject of 



3 o CHAPEL TALKS 

veracity, the necessity of telling the truth. O, if we 
could only get a conception of what would be the 
condition of human society if all men were con- 
tinually downright liars, we would then appreciate 
what truth is, and its great importance and value. 

What is a commercial panic? It is the loss of all 
confidence in each other. No man knows whether 
his neighbor can pay his debts or not. When we 
lose all confidence in each other's ability or dispo- 
sition to pay debts, then we are in a panic. Suppose 
there was this condition in society — that no man 
had any confidence whatever in his neighbor's 
word; a promise was not worth anything; a word 
had no truth in it that you could rely upon — what 
would be the condition of society? It would go to 
pieces; no man could be happy, because he could 
have no confidence in anybody. Can you conceive 
such a condition of things ? Now, truth-telling does 
away with all that. When we tell the truth we have 
faith in each other, and rest on each other's word. 
This is the social bond. 

Now, it is more natural for men to tell the truth 
than it is to tell lies. People usually tell the truth 
when they are talking, unless they are tempted by 
some apparent present advantage, or to avert some 
personal loss, to do otherwise. Take away tempta- 
tion and people usually tell the truth. It is only 
under temptation, therefore, that we tell falsehoods. 
We assume that we may get some benefit by falsify- 
ing, and then we lie to bring it about. 



CHAPEL TALKS 31 

Some of you may not stop to think just what lying 
is. You do not look on it as something that God 
hates with perfect hatred, and will not forgive with- 
out deepest penitence. You are not always required 
to speak, but when you do speak you are required to 
cleave to the truth. Jesus did not always speak 
when he was questioned. You read when he was 
before Herod, Herod began to ask him questions 
and he would not say a word to him. He was not 
required to speak, but had he spoken he would have 
told the truth in perfection. So you and I are not 
always required to speak, but when we open our 
lips let us be like our Christ in that we never pre- 
varicate or for any reason tell what is not so. 

Now, you may start all sorts of casuistic ques- 
tions. You may ask me, "Do you mean to say that 
under any circumstances conceivable a man should 
never tell a falsehood?" Well, what do you want to 
ask such a question as that for? I want to know 
if people ask such questions without the purpose to 
excuse themselves when they lie. Why not put it 
the other way: Is there any conceivable situation 
wherein I am privileged to lie ? Well, I tell you it 
is a pretty perilous thing to answer that question 
with a "Yes." And we ought to hesitate long be- 
fore we give a permanent answer to that question. 
If there be such a case, it is a very extreme one, 
almost excluding the idea of sanity in our inter- 
course with each other. Let us lay down this prin- 
ciple now. Let us put the standard where God puts 



32 CHAPEL TALKS 

it. Eternal truth is a glory to a soul, because it is 
Godlike. 

In a school like this there may be false standards 
of truthfulness; and I do not know but you may 
have one here and think you are free and pure be- 
cause you act out the standard of the school, rather 
than the standard that God sets up. I beg of you, 
do not take any human standard as the law of your 
conduct. If you do you will imperil your character. 
Take God's standard and cleave to the truth ; and if 
you do that, even though you suffer loss, there will 
be no mark on your soul. It is your duty to your 
fellow men to do that, because if lying becomes a 
habit of the community, farewell to confidence, fare- 
well to social peace, farewell to highest character 
and perfect Christianity. 

Do not be misled by false reasoning. Be as true 
as your God to yourself, to your conscience, and 
the end will be peace within. 

Honesty 

One of the great duties to others is to be honest. 
Honesty concerns the payment of debts. An honest 
man will always pay his debts if he can. Some- 
times he cannot; and he may suffer fully as much 
as anybody else when that is the case. But when a 
man can, his first duty to others is to pay his debts ; 
and one of the most serious things in life is this, 
that a good many people are not honest. They 
count themselves smart if they can get out of such 



CHAPEL TALKS 33 

obligations. What if all men were dishonest? 
What would become of society, what would be the 
condition of the business world? 

The facts are, that the great majority of men are 
honest, and do pay their debts, especially to indi- 
viduals. 

Conscience is a queer thing, isn't it ? A man who 
will pay his debts with scrupulous honesty to 
individuals will sometimes not pay his debts to a 
corporation. Isn't that queer ? He will have a con- 
science very keen about any obligation to an indi- 
vidual, but when it comes to a debt to a railroad 
company, or a debt to a town, or to the government, 
he counts himself smart if he can get out of it. 
This is a curious specimen of conscience. But is 
that man an honest man? Will not an honest man 
pay his debts to a corporation just as quickly as to 
an individual? He will. And yet somehow there 
has grown up in society a feeling that a debt to a 
corporation is not as great an obligation as to an 
individual. It ought not to be so. There are multi- 
tudes of men who would not cheat a fellow man out 
of a penny, but they will cheat the government every 
time they can. What about paying taxes? It is 
said that the conscience of the public is perverted 
as to honesty with reference to the government, in 
that multitudes of men will not permit their prop- 
erty to be taxed as it ought to be. Men take oaths, 
when they are called for, as to the amount of prop- 
erty they may possess. 'Tis true they may set one 



34 CHAPEL TALKS 

valuation and the selectmen may set another on real 
estate. This is a matter to be settled, but when a 
man hides honest property that he ought to be taxed 
for, he is not an honest man. That man may pay 
every penny he owes to an individual, or to a firm, 
but when he cheats the government he shows that 
there is something wrong in his training. 

It is astonishing how many have to suffer on 
account of the dishonesty of others. Do you know 
that I am compelled to pay more money for my 
food because of the rascals that won't pay their 
bills ? Do you know, in doing business, men in the 
grocery business and in other legitimate businesses 
expect that they are going to lose from bad debts 
about so much money — they expect that they will 
meet with dishonest men who will not pay — and 
they assess that percentage of dishonest debts on 
those who do pay. That is the way they do busi- 
ness. I do not mean to say that that is not honest. 
I mean to say that business men do that as a matter 
of business. Now, an honest man has to help pay 
the debts of a dishonest man. Therefore dishonesty 
affects everybody. That shows how necessary 
honesty is in a community, and how honest men are 
affected by the dishonesty of others. O for straight- 
forward, honest dealings, man with man! 

Now, boys and girls, do not fall into the habit of 
neglecting little debts as of no importance ; for when 
one does that he may do it all through life, and that 
is a dishonest course. Let us be honest. Let us 



CHAPEL TALKS 35 

make it a part of our education that we will inten- 
tionally do no wrong to anybody. Being dishonest 
is a wrong to the world, to ourselves, and to God. 
Let us be honest. 

Manner 

The word "manners" is very broad in its applica- 
tion. It takes in the whole field of etiquette; but 
the word "manner" is more specific. Every indi- 
vidual carries around with him a manner. There is 
a charm in manner that no language can express. 
It is silent power. 

You cannot define or describe the ineffable beauty 
of a morning. You can feel it, but you cannot tell 
what it is. You do not know why it is so beautiful 
and pleasing to you — you know it is pleasing. 
When you see the sparkle of the sunlight on a lake 
you are delighted, but you cannot tell why. When 
you see the bloom on a peach it charms you, but you 
cannot describe it so that another can feel precisely 
your feelings. The sheen on a leaf, flashing and 
sparkling in the sunlight, is something exceedingly 
enjoyable. 

So there is a charm in manner that cannot be told 
in speech — it can be felt by the spirit. You know 
what it is — it is a delicate, beautiful reserve. It is 
not pride, though it is akin to it. It is far distant 
from anything like haughtiness — it does not origi- 
nate in the aristocracy of blood ; it is the beautiful, 
sweet, fragrant atmosphere of a splendid person- 
ality. Manner is that delicate reserve in ladyhood, 



36 CHAPEL TALKS 

in a gentleman, that you and I ought to cultivate in 
all our social relations. It is born of self-respect. 
It comes from the conviction, "I was made for a 
great destiny, I am called to associate with the 
angels and the archangels, and to stand face to face 
at last with God himself." It is that conviction that 
ennobles one's personality — makes us feel that we 
are in the world not for show, but for splendid serv- 
ice. O, the charm of manner that persons can 
throw about themselves by that holy reserve, that 
sacred, delicate reserve, that is always the mark of 
splendid character! I want you to cultivate it; I 
want you to cultivate that. 

You can destroy it by familiarity, by boldness. 
O, womanhood, when you are bold and familiar, 
you are weak, you lose your power. It is only in 
that holy reserve that you become beautifully at- 
tractive to every thoughtful soul. If, when you are 
bold and familiar and can stare a boy out of coun- 
tenance, if you only knew what the boys say about 
you when they talk with each other, you would hide 
your face in your handkerchief. It is this beau- 
tiful reserve that you should cultivate in all your 
social life in school, and then that charm will come 
forth like a fragrant atmosphere, delighting every- 
one. 

Young man, I say the same to you — don't you 
become too familiar. Throw about yourself this 
delicate reserve if you want to be respected and to 
respect yourself. When you throw that away, you 



CHAPEL TALKS 37 

are touched with soiled fingers, and your soul has 

the imprint of it. 

The charge is brought against the American 

public school system that it destroys that charm. 

Now, I do not believe that is necessary, and yet it 

is one of the perils of the associations of the sexes. 

Let us guard it, let us guard it here. Never permit 

your soul to be touched by a soiled hand — never! 

Preserve the sweetness, the simplicity, the charm of 

purity and reserve, womanliness and gentleman- 

liness ; and then in future years God will bless you, 

and the memory of your school days will be 

precious. 

Observations on Building 

It is with great satisfaction that we see this new 
building going up. I trust you will learn some les- 
sons that you ought to learn in seeing these walls 
rising. See how carefully these men lay the brick ! 
In the first place, go around and see them make the 
mortar. How diligently they work it over until it 
comes to the proper consistency! Note the sand, 
how sharp it is — it takes sharp sand to make good 
mortar. The mortar must be in a perfect condition 
in order to have a perfect building. But after the 
mortar is made and carried to the mason, see how 
carefully he lays the brick. How carefully he 
squares the walls! He takes brick by brick, and 
examines it to see if it is good, puts it in its place, 
taps it a little with his trowel to get it in a perfect 
location. See how plumb he lays the brick. He is 



38 CHAPEL TALKS 

an expert ; he is a master at his business. His work 
proves it. 

What lessons should come from those walls ? Do 
you know you also are builders, and that your build- 
ing will not perish? This one will go down some 
time. It may stand here a hundred years, three hun- 
dred for aught we know — if you do not tear it down 
with your gymnastics — but the building that you 
are constructing will stand forever. That makes it 
very important that you should put it up plumb. 
You are building a character. Are you careful to 
lay it right ? Have you got your foundation secure ? 
Are you building on the great corner stone, Jesus 
Christ? Are you careful to select those thoughts 
that will be a joy to you forever? Are you careful 
to cultivate those affections that bind those thoughts 
together as the mortar binds the brick? Are you 
careful in the building of your character that it be 
in perfect harmony with the laws of righteousness ? 
How is it ? 

Now, here is something for you to think of every 
time you are around that gymnasium. Do not for- 
get what I say this morning. Watch the building — 
learn the lesson. You are builders together with 
God of a building that will live forever, to be a 
source of joy or wretchedness to you. How care- 
ful ought you to be, how joyful in the work ! Do 
not take it hard, take it joyfully — only be sure that 
you are building according to the principles of that 
Book. And then it will all come out right. 



CHAPEL TALKS 39 

The Value of Pain 

There is nothing that God has made that has not 
value. We may not always understand its purpose ; 
we may not know what the value is ; we may fail to 
appreciate it ; but let this eternal truth be spoken — - 
there is nothing that God has made that has not 
value. 

That was a wonderful statement in the first chap- 
ter of Genesis — when God had finished his creation 
he looked upon it and pronounced it good — good 
for its purpose. He had an end in the creation of 
everything that he made, and if that object, what- 
ever it be, or that force, be kept within that boun- 
dary, working out those ends, it is good, it has value. 
Beauty has value. God made beauty. We may not 
always understand its purpose, but it has value. 
Health has value — we know it, we appreciate that. 
But it is not everyone who regards pain as having 
value, and yet we found yesterday, in our class in 
psychology, that pain was benevolent; that it was 
the gift of God to man ; that suffering is a mark of 
divine love to humanity. 

What is pain? It is the product of something 
out of order. When you overdo and become weary 
and exhausted, that feeling that is so disagreeable 
and painful to you indicates, "Now is the time to 
stop; lie down; rest, and sleep." When you are 
sick in some organ, God has ordained that pain 
should speak to you and say, "Now take care; get 
the physician; heal the disease, or it will ruin you." 



40 CHAPEL TALKS 

Suppose in such circumstances God had never im- 
planted these disagreeable feelings in us, we would 
go on to our death unwarned. 

The same is true of the soul. When the soul has 
done wrong and is sick, God has ordained that con- 
science should torment it. There is no pain like the 
pain of the guilty soul; but that pain is benevolent. 
It says to the soul, "Get rid of that folly ; turn away 
from that sin," so that the pangs of conscience are 
benevolent, a mark of the goodness of our God. 
Now, you cannot speak of anything that God has 
made that is not good — even the poisons have their 
uses. They may destroy us if they are taken out 
of their place and put to false purposes, but they 
have their uses. Alcohol has its use — to pickle 
snakes and beetles in the laboratory and museum; 
but it ought not to pickle human beings. It has its 
uses as a stimulant also, and so with all other 
poisons. The difficulty is, we take them out of their 
just relations and use them as God never intended, 
and we have to suffer for it. 

Now, there is one thing that has no value in it. 
That one thing is sin. That brings death. God 
never made it. Man made it. I do not care what 
philosophy you accept, God will never rightly be 
accused of creating sin. He gave us free power, 
moral agency, and he told us not to misuse those 
powers ; but man did, and created sin. That is rea- 
sonable ; that is biblical ; that is eternal truth. There 
is one thing that has no value, that leads only to de- 



CHAPEL TALKS 41 

struction — it is disobedience to God's law, which is 
sin. 

Now, there is a philosophy that teaches that God 
created sin. John Fiske states that positively in his 
theory of evolution. We deny it. God spurns it. 
All such philosophy as that is an impeachment of 
the divine wisdom and goodness. Sin is a nuisance 
that man made by the abuse of his free power, and 
any other philosophy is false, and ought to be 
spurned from all human belief. 

There is another phase to this subject of values, 
and I propose in a few days to put before you its 
infinite importance to you and me; but I want to 
reiterate that everything that God has made has its 
intrinsic value. It is good for its purpose. God has 
so indorsed it in his written Word ; but there is one 
thing that God did not make and has no value. It 
is disobedience to the divine will. O, let us learn 
that lesson in our youth ! 

Pemigewasset River 

Poor Pemigewasset! It has a sad history. It 
is a peculiar river. Some of us are acquainted with 
its aberrations and its great defects. It rises under 
the solemn countenance of the Old Man of the 
Mountains, in the Profile Notch, or away up in the 
east branch. It drains all the springs of the White 
Mountains. Sometimes it almost declines to flow at 
all, and then again it goes on a rampage, gets in- 
toxicated, and is full to the banks ; sometimes fuller 



42 CHAPEL TALKS 

than the banks, and carries out bridges and cuts up 
didoes in general. A terrible history has the 
Pemigewasset. 

What is the matter with the Pemigewasset? It 
does not control itself. It is subject to floods and 
great depressions; drains too much water in the 
springtime, brings down too much of a flood, and 
tears things to pieces. It is a symbol of destruction 
and despair — that is the character of the river. 

Now, it is just like a boy or a girl who does not 
control himself or herself. A boy who does not 
control his appetites and does not master his desires, 
who is carried away by a flood of feeling, impulse, 
is the Pemigewasset in experience. How many 
there are who go to pieces in life! I have looked 
on that Pemigewasset and I have seen it at its best 
and at its worst. What the river needs is something 
to control it. It needs to have its resources stored 
up. It is subject to fits and floods. 

Just so it is with poor, weak human nature. 
What are you here for, this spring term? To 
strengthen your wills, so that you can control the 
springs of action. What are the springs of action? 
Ask the ethics class of last term. They have passed 
a good examination on the springs of action, and 
they tell me that the springs of action are appetites, 
desires, and affections — the feelings of the soul, or 
the impulses of the flesh. Now, when these rise to 
a flood and sweep away the will, they lead to ruin. 
Appetites, desires, affections, swollen to a flood, 



CHAPEL TALKS 43 

sweep away all obstructions and carry ruin in their 
path. 

Now, let's begin the spring term with the deter- 
mination that we will control these fountains of 
feeling, these desires, whatever they may be; that 
we will master and regulate ourselves. We will 
not be like the river Pemigewasset, that carries ruin ; 
but we will rule ourselves, and move forward to 
efficient and productive activity. Can't it be so? 
Remember that river. O, I sometimes think the 
Old Man of the Mountain sheds tears in abundance 
when the rains fall on his brow, as he looks south- 
ward down the Pemigewasset valley, and sees the 
river at flood, carrying destruction in its path. He 
is the guardian of that river, and his cheeks are 
often wet with tears as he sees the river overflow- 
ing the banks, carrying away bridges, etc. Do not 
let it be said of us, we are like that river, too weak 
to control ourselves. 

How do we get strength of will to master these 
forces within us ? Hard study, let me tell you, hard 
study will give it. If you have power to sit down 
to a task that you do not like, enough will force to 
say, "I will get that lesson, though I had rather be 
playing ball. I will master myself, though I should 
like to be out of doors breathing the fresh air, but 
I will get this lesson. I do not like it, but I will get 
this lesson" — if you can do that, sit in your chair 
and say that, you will achieve a great victory. You 
will get a self-mastery that will be very useful to 



44 CHAPEL TALKS 

you everywhere in life. You may think, "O, this is 
such a hard lesson!" Yes, but these lessons do 
bring will power and self-control. Will power 
means success. Let us, then, remember, at the be- 
ginning of this term, the first thing we have to do 
is to get strength enough of will to get a hard les- 
son when we do not want to. 

Winnipesaukee River 

In the census of the United States of 1880 there 
is quite a large space given to a discussion of the 
Winnipesaukee River. It says it is one of the most 
remarkable rivers in the United States, and gives 
the reasons. It is a river that never has a destruc- 
tive freshet when it has high water; it is a river 
that has its source in a lake, with the great advan- 
tage that its source is dammed up and under the 
control of human direction, so that the water is 
drawn according to necessity. That river is the 
source of power in Tilton, in Franklin, in Man- 
chester. It is the pride and the source of wealth of 
Lowell and of Lawrence. It is this river that makes 
the Merrimac useful — one of the most important 
rivers in the country. 

Now, compare the Pemigewasset and the Winni- 
pesaukee. The one, as we have seen, is destructive 
for lack of control ; the other is a constant source of 
power and utility. The Winnipesaukee, therefore, 
becomes the type of true manhood. Look at it, this 
Winnipesaukee! Look at the great lake stored 



CHAPEL TALKS 45 

above us, say twenty miles long — all its resources 
drawn upon at the pleasure of man. Look at the 
constant power that flows through this village, turn- 
ing its mills and producing those fabrics that add 
to the world's wealth. What have you got? A 
river that is the type of a useful manhood. 

Now, when is a man useful ? When he has great 
resources, and uses those resources for the well- 
being of his fellow men. What is an education? 
It is a storing up of power. It is making in a hu- 
man soul a Lake Winnipesaukee ; storing up forces 
for usefulness, to be called upon in speech and ac- 
tion, forces that are controlled, regulated, mastered. 
This river produces no destructive freshets. A true 
man injures nobody, but blesses everybody. 

Now, you have your choice — which will you be? 
— a bad man ? Who is a bad man ? A bad man is 
one who is a torrent, like the Pemigewasset, an un- 
controlled pressure of force — or a nobody, just as 
the Pemigewasset is, dried up to a little rivulet, with 
no power in it, or else a sweeping demon of destruc- 
tion. That is the type of a bad man — uncontrolled 
and uncontrollable. The Winnipesaukee is the type 
of a man whose spirit has been filled with true and 
noble impulses and ideals and useful forces, and 
who, controlling himself, uses his life to bless the 

world. 

Discord 

What delightful music we heard yesterday, what 
harmony we listened to from this platform! Now 



46 CHAPEL TALKS 

suppose that that harp had had a broken string, that 
those instruments had not been tuned. What would 
you have said? What would you have done ? You 
would have said, "Let me get out of this," and you 
would have gone. You would not have been held in 
this hall breathless for an hour — those discords 
would have pained you and you would have fled 
from them. 

What a lesson ! Put yourself in the place of the 
Master of music, the infinite God who made you, 
and who gave the possibilities of harmony to his 
creatures. Put yourself in his place and listen to 
the infinite harmonies of this universe — the praises 
of the stars, of the sun, of the planets, of the trees, 
and of the winds — and then catch the discord com- 
ing from human hearts. Think of it, will you? 
One of God's greatest creatures out of harmony, 
out of tune — selfish, Godless, destroying all the 
music of the universe by our painful discords! 
O, don't you see how necessary it is that we 
should be attuned to the infinite worship of 
God? Don't you see why Bethlehem brought 
its Child, and why Calvary had its cross, and why 
the Son of God came into this world to tune all 
hearts to his praise ? Let me read you a few lines 
expressive of this sentiment : 

Blue eyes blurred with weeping, 

How ye hurt the grace 
Of untroubled twilights, 

Night's unwrinkled face! 



CHAPEL TALKS 47 

Still the boughs of April 

Greet their annual guests, 
Still the newborn singers 

Stir a thousand nests. 

Brooks and fields and pastures 

Always seem so glad ! — 
O, how strange that only 

You and I are sad ! 

Yes, how strange that discord 

Is a human thing, 
That God's orchestra can play 

With one broken string! 

Though the other instruments, 

Joined in faultless tune, 
Render perfect symphonies, 

Winter, Stars, and June, 

Inharmonious music 

From this human lyre 
Smites the ear of angels 

And condemns the choir. 

Master of the players, 

In whose smile is fame, 
Spoilt is all our music — 

Hearken to our shame ! — 

Once again these broken 

Harps of clay employ; 
Tune them to Thy glory 

In the key of joy! 

Then shall pass from memory 

This discordant din 
Which disturbs Creation — 

Sorrow, Care, and Sin. 



48 CHAPEL TALKS 

Then shall rise forever 

From the cloud and clod 
Love's majestic chorus — 

"We rejoice, O God!" 

A Standard of Right Needed 

I suppose every one of you carries a watch. A 
watch is a necessity. Almost everyone possesses 
one, and I call your attention to this remarkable 
fact, that if you were to compare your watches this 
morning, I doubt if any two of them would be ex- 
actly alike. The other day in my house the clock 
downstairs struck one time, upstairs another, and 
my watch differed from both. There was a varia- 
tion of from five to ten minutes in these timepieces. 
And you will find that same variation in your time- 
pieces. The other day my watch reported five 
o'clock and the clock on the tower here had 
struck five or six minutes before. What are we go- 
ing to do about it? These watches vary, for va- 
rious reasons. They are all imperfect, possibly, be- 
cause of dust in them which impedes the play of the 
mechanism. Suppose you suspect your watch is not 
right. Are you going to regulate it by your chum's 
watch ? That may be more wrong than yours. We 
need a standard of time somewhere. Have we such 
a standard of time? Yes. The government gives 
it to us every day at half past twelve o'clock. An 
automatic standard of time strikes the Congrega- 
tional bell down in the tower, and that gives us the 
absolute time for this Eastern section of our coun- 



CHAPEL TALKS 49 

try. Yesterday I compared my watch by it and my 
watch was twenty seconds fast. The bell rang about 
two minutes late by the standard time this morning 
for chapel. We must regulate our watches by the 
standard time in order to know where we are. Do 
you know that there is not a railroad in this country 
but demands of its engineers and its operatives that 
they shall regulate their watches every day by a 
standard of time? No engineer would think of go- 
ing out of the depot on a run without first seeing 
that his watch was absolutely right, lest there be 
some fearful accident. 

God has put in your soul a wonderful piece of 
spiritual mechanism that we call conscience. Con- 
science says to us, to every one of us, "You ought 
to do right, you ought." It won't vary in that state- 
ment — "You ought to do right." You hear it. 
There is in your soul this morning that voice — "You 
ought to do right." But if I were to take a particu- 
lar case of conduct and ask any two of you, I doubt 
if you would agree. There are those whose con- 
sciences are so irregular and so haphazard in action 
that what one says is right another says is wrong. 
We cannot trust our consciences any more than you 
can trust your watch. What shall we do, therefore ? 
Are we permitted to go through this world ignorant 
of the right — one conscience saying one thing and 
another another thing? O, no ! It is your duty and 
my duty to ourselves to regulate our conscience by 
some absolute standard of right. Just as the en- 



50 CHAPEL TALKS 

gineer sees that his watch is absolutely correct every 
day by the designated standard of time, so it is your 
duty and my duty to see that our conscience answers 
the question, What is right by an absolute standard 
that will make no mistake ? What is that standard ? 
Where shall we find it? You can regulate your 
watch by the half past twelve o'clock stroke on the 
bell. Have we anywhere in this universe anything 
that corresponds to that spiritually by which we are 
to regulate our conscience ? Yes, yes ! Where is it ? 
What is it ? I will tell you next week. I have not 
time this morning. 

The Standard of Right 

The discrepancies in our watches are corrected 
by the standard time, as I told you last week. How 
shall we correct the diverse judgments of our con- 
sciences? You will find the standard in its perfec- 
tion only in the Bible. That is the standard of con- 
duct. Now, there are certain kinds of conduct that 
you will find spoken of there concerning which the 
standard is explicit and decisive. Is it right to 
murder? "Thou shalt not kill." Is it right to steal ? 
"Thou shalt not steal." There you have your stand- 
ard in the commandments. But the great body of 
actions that we perform are not mentioned in the 
Word of God. You can turn over the pages of the 
Bible and ask yourself the question, "Is this particu- 
lar act right or wrong?" and you will get no answer, 
yes or no. Is there, therefore, no standard for these 



CHAPEL TALKS 51 

actions by which we are to judge whether an act is 
right or wrong ? Yes. Please remember the Chris- 
tian system does not regulate human conduct by 
specific rules. It does not answer categorically the 
question, "Is this right or wrong?" but it gives us 
certain great life principles that cover all human ac- 
tivity and enable us to decide whether this particular 
course or custom in life is right or wrong. That 
particular standard is summed up by the apostle 
Paul in this language : "Whether ye eat or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 
There is our universal and eternal principle by which 
we are to decide our conduct in this life. Now, that 
principle might, on account of defective education 
and reasoning powers, be difficult for us sometimes 
to adjust to our conduct, were it not that that prin- 
ciple is illustrated in the Word of God. It is lived 
out. It is manifest to us there in a life; and by 
studying that life we get the principle by which we 
are to judge of our conduct. Where is that life? 
Jesus Christ. "In him was life," says John, "and 
the life was the light" of the world. "I am the light 
of the world." The great, absolute standard of hu- 
man conduct, right and wrong, is given us in Jesus 
Christ, in his conduct, in his life, in his motives, in 
his spirit. By studying him we get the standard of 
how we ought to act in all conceivable circum- 
stances. Now, in examining that life we find that 
it was a life of service, it was a life of doing good 
to God's creatures by blessing everybody, by harm- 



52 CHAPEL TALKS 

ing nobody ; and you cannot find in that life of Jesus 
Christ a single instance where his conduct would 
lead to the injury of a human soul. It was said by 
his enemies, "He is a sinner, he goes to eat with 
publicans and sinners." Yes, he associated with the 
bad, he associated with wicked people ; but for what 
purpose? To make them better. And if he could 
not make them better he would not be found in their 
company. His influence everywhere, his personal 
activity, was all to enrich and ennoble humanity and 
lift it up to higher and nobler things. Now, that is 
the standard of human conduct. 

I want to apply that standard to some very par- 
ticular questions. I want to apply it to some very 
vexing questions that you are all more or less con- 
cerned about. Is it wrong to dance ? I am not talk- 
ing now about skipping around on the grass in a 
frisky spirit as the lambs do. I am talking of an 
institution; I am talking of a custom of society; I 
am talking of the conduct of multitudes of human 
beings ; I am talking of the modern dance, just as it 
is carried on in society to-day. Is it right or wrong 
for me to engage in it ? That is the question, and it 
is a living question. How am I to settle it ? There 
is a diversity of judgment on that question among 
young people, among you. Now, let us bring it to 
the standard of absolute right, the standard of God. 
What is the result on human character of the mod- 
ern dance? What is its effect on the intellect, on 
the heart life, on the conscience, on the history of 



CHAPEL TALKS S3 

individuals? Does it ennoble? does it purify? does 
it make people better for living in this world ? does 
it bring human happiness of that pure and perma- 
nent kind that God indorses in your life? Does it? 
Does it narrow ? does it vitiate ? does its low atmos- 
phere and spirit tend to ruin? Can you engage in 
it to the glory of God, by which I mean the well- 
being and enlargement and purification of human- 
ity? That is the question. I bring the modern 
dance square up against the Christ life, the life lived 
to glorify humanity by leading it to a higher and 
nobler life; and I ask, what is its effect, its influ- 
ence everywhere ? Will you answer that ? Can you 
answer it in the affirmative, that the modern dance 
as an institution makes men and women better, that 
it leads to a higher life, a nobler intellectual and 
heart life; or is its whole tendency to selfishness and 
vice? Answer it, will you, in the light of this stand- 
ard, the absolute standard, "Whatever ye do 
whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God." 
There is only one answer to that question, only one 
answer that a real earnest, thoughtful, rational soul, 
studying all the facts, can give. 

Now I ask another questionable question — What 
about the modern theater? I am not talking about 
an ideal theater. I can conceive of a theater in which 
there should be represented truths in action, that 
would ennoble and purify and uplift all the ideals 
and purposes of humanity. I can conceive of that. 
Is it possible still ? That is a question I can conceive 



54 CHAPEL TALKS 

of; but I am talking of the modern theater, as you 
see it displayed on the billboards, as you see it noted 
and revealed in the daily press, as you see it in its 
influence on character. Can I glorify God by pat- 
ronizing that institution as it exists to-day? Will 
it bless and ennoble me and my friends, or will it 
pollute my heart life ? That is the question. I bring 
the modern theater to this standard, I bring the con- 
science of mankind to this law, as we bring our 
watches to the standard at half past twelve o'clock. 
There is one answer to it. The very best of actors 
has said, "My daughter shall never enter the the- 
ater," because he knew its effects on human char- 
acter. Can I glorify God by patronizing such an in- 
stitution? "Never, nevermore!" is the answer that 
comes back from God's standard. Therefore I must 
adjust my conscience and my character to this abso- 
lute standard of right and wrong. If I can bless 
humanity by patronizing the theater, if I can ennoble 
mankind and make it better, if I can bring it nearer 
to the standard of the life of Jesus Christ, if I can 
implant in human souls the motives, the spirit that 
possessed him, then I can patronize it and my con- 
science will not condemn it. But the question is, 
can I do it? Isn't its tendency everywhere to de- 
moralize? Read the divorce scandals of the daily 
press of actors and actresses — that is enough. We 
cannot enter into that atmosphere without being 
corrupted by it. So let us adjust our moral judg- 
ments to this standard that God has given, and the 



CHAPEL TALKS 55 

end will be a conscience void of offense toward God 
and toward man. Young people, this is a living 
question, and I ask you the serious consideration of 
it. I have opened to you, I trust, the great prin- 
ciples of human conduct and the great diversity in 
human consciences and the only way to bring us to 
the standard of right so as to have a pure heart in 
the sight of God. 

The Sin of Neglect 

There is in the station in Concord a clock which 
is the standard of time. Every engineer on the 
Boston and Maine Railroad, starting out on a run, 
must adjust his watch by that standard. Now, sup- 
pose an engineer should ignore that order, and day 
after day neglect to compare his watch with that 
standard, and that watch should lose time and be- 
come ten minutes late, and as the result of its late- 
ness there should be a collision and sorrow should 
come to many homes because of the dead and the 
injured; and suppose all these facts came out, and 
that engineer was called to answer for his crime of 
negligence, and he should excuse himself by saying, 
"O, it is so much trouble, I did not think it was 
necessary, I trusted in my watch — I thought it was 
a good timekeeper and I did not pay any attention 
to the order." Suppose you were on the jury and 
had to give a verdict, guilty or not — what would be 
your verdict? You would all say guilty of gross 
neglect. 



56 CHAPEL TALKS 

I have been talking to you about a standard given 
to us by God by which to regulate our spiritual fac- 
ulty called conscience. I have told you that that 
standard is found in the Word of God. It is illus- 
trated in the spirit and life and purposes of Jesus 
Christ. Now, in order that that faculty should be 
regulated we must compare it with the life of Jesus. 
We must see whether we are acting as he would act 
under given conditions. Suppose we do not do it. 
You say, "It is so much trouble reading the Bible. 
I think I am about right ; I act according to my con- 
science ; I am not particularly careful to see that my 
conscience is properly instructed." And thus you 
go on, and the law of God is broken. Are you guilty 
or innocent ? Do you know that that is the way the 
great mass of people seem to be living? I told you 
that the conscience of scarcely two would speak alike 
under given conditions. Why ? Because people do 
not regulate, direct, their conscience by the stand- 
ard that God has given. 

It is an awful thing to neglect God's Word and to 
know not what God's will is. All knowledge is 
good. Knowledge of algebra is good ; a knowledge 
of geometrical principles is good; knowledge of 
scientific truth is very good ; but the highest qf all 
knowledge is to know the will of God, is to know the 
standard of right, is to know whether our conscience 
is regulated by that or not. We talk in these days 
about education. Do you know, there may be an 
education that is exceedingly defective? The only 



CHAPEL TALKS 57 

true education is that which brings the soul first to 
the standard of right, and thus educates the con- 
science of our youth. That is what God wants of 
us — that which is called Christian education; and 
all other types are defective and false. O, I covet 
for you all this disposition, this spirit: "I want to 
know my duty ; I want to know what good conduct 
is; I want to know what God's will is; I want to 
bring my heart to the standard that God himself has 
set up ; I do not want my conscience regulated by the 
average conscience of this world, for that is not 
right; I want to know what God wants of me; I 
want my heart life adjusted to that standard." If 
we could only get the youth of America to want that 
and take the trouble to find it out, what a transfor- 
mation would take place in American life ! What a 
new world we would live in! — where every soul 
would be seeking first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness ! 

I have been talking to you two or three weeks 
about the conscience. It is the very foundation and 
center of all education that is worth anything. I 
have been bringing to you simple illustrations to 
show you its relation to duty. I want you, 
from this hour, honestly and candidly, to use 
your time and your talents to answer this ques- 
tion — "What is my duty before God?" I turn you 
to the Bible to get that answer. Now, do not go to 
it with a prejudiced mind, do not go to it with cot- 
ton in your ears that you may not hear its voice. 



58 CHAPEL TALKS 

Come to it with an open heart ; come to the standard 
that God has set to regulate human conduct; come 
and ask, "What is the divine will?" and then pur- 
pose in your heart to do it, no matter what it may- 
cost you ; and the end, O, the end will be a developed 
character like the Christ. That is what we are here 
for, to be made like him. 

Obeying Conscience 

There is an old saying that a man is a bundle of 
habits. There are habits of the body, habits of the 
mind, and habits of the spirit. What is a habit? 
It is a way we acquire of doing things. By the repe- 
tition of an act again and again and again it be- 
comes second nature; it becomes automatic. There 
may be a tendency born in us to a certain habit ; but 
a habit is what we make. It is not a gift of nature. 
We create our habits, and thus create ourselves. It 
is easy to break up a habit before it has become fully 
formed. Take a spinning jenny and you can break 
a little strand very easily; but when those strands 
are woven into a thread it is more difficult, and when 
the threads have been woven into a cord it is im- 
possible for human power to snap them. 

So it is with a habit. If your habit is wrong, 
break it at once, before it becomes a cable of steel 
and makes you its slave. Habit determines destiny. 
That is a remarkable saying — let me repeat it ; there 
is infinite wisdom in that statement — habit deter- 
mines destiny, I have spoken to you several times 



CHAPEL TALKS 59 

this term about conscience. I have told you its na- 
ture; some of the laws of its development. Now, 
our attitude toward conscience may become a habit. 
Conscience may be imperfect. Yes ; I have told you 
bow to perfect it, by bringing it to the test of a 
standard, and I have told you what that standard 
was. But what I want to talk to you about this 
morning is the habit of obeying conscience. Though 
your conscience may be imperfect, form the habit in 
your youth of obeying it instantly. Conscience al- 
ways says, "Now," not "To-morrow"; "Obey me 
now." N-o-w — Now is the demand of conscience 
on every soul ; and every wise soul will obey it now. 
Twenty-five years ago I spent an hour with John G. 
Whittier, the poet, and he talked enthusiastically 
over his life, told me many facts in his career; and 
he said to me, "When I was a young man I was in- 
terested in politics and I had fine political prospects, 
but I heard the cry of the slave, and my conscience 
said, 'You ought to choose the call of the slave'; 
and I obeyed my conscience and spoke out and that 
ruined me politically, but it saved my character. I 
obeyed it instantly." It saved that man's character, 
and John G. Whittier will go down in history a 
noble man because he obeyed his conscience at any 
cost. 

When I was a boy there came into my soul, 
vaguely at first, but more and more clearly, the con- 
viction that I ought to be a Christian; that Jesus 
Christ had claims on me. I had read he died for 



60 CHAPEL TALKS 

me ; and I read in the New Testament his claims on 
me, and my conscience said I ought to obey him. 
But I began to form the habit of disobeying my con- 
science. I tried to stifle that conviction. For some 
years I tried to forget my duty — I did not listen to 
conscience ; but one day in my boyhood I began to 
think, and this was my thought : "Your duty is to 
give your heart to Jesus Christ and be his follower 
and do his will ; you have been disobeying your con- 
science these years ; it has troubled you ; it has given 
you no rest ; you are forming the habit of disobey- 
ing your conscience; where will it end? It is be- 
coming easier and easier for you not to mind your 
conscience; what will be the end of it? You are 
weaving the cable of steel that will bind you for- 
ever"; and I stopped and faced the situation. I 
said to myself, "I am wrong, and I ought to be 
right ; now is the time ; conscience says so" ; and I 
obeyed the voice of conscience and gave my heart 
to Christ; and, O! my life from that hour has been 
an effort — imperfect at best — to obey the voice of 
conscience, and it has given me great peace. 

Habit determines destiny. You are shaping your 
destiny now. Have you formed the habit of obey- 
ing your conscience? Are you forming the habit of 
disobeying conscience? As you obey or disobey, 
you are constructing your eternity, and you are do- 
ing it now. O, if I could bring every soul here, 
thoughtfully, face to face with itself, asking itself 
this question, "What am I doing with myself?" I 



CHAPEL TALKS 61 

think there would not be a pause as there was a 
pause in my boyhood before the beginning of a bet- 
ter life. These are decision days with some of you. 
Will you break the strand that can be broken now, 
or will you say, "Some time I will" ? But that strand 
may become a cable of steel binding your soul by the 
resistless power of habit and you cannot break it. 
I beg of you, be thoughtful to-day, face your con- 
science and answer the question, "What am I doing 

with myself?" 

National Assimilation 

We have encouraged immigration, and are ap- 
parently swamped by the multitudes who come here 
from foreign lands who know nothing of our in- 
stitutions. But there are some bright facts that 
are shining upon this problem of immigration that 
ought to quiet our fears. Dr. Clark, head of the 
Christian Endeavor Society, has visited the libraries 
of Boston to inquire, "What are the boys reading? 
What are the classes that call for books, and what 
do they want?" And without a single exception 
these librarians inform him that the children of the 
immigrants — however degraded their parents are, 
however ignorant, however un-American — the boys 
of the Russian Jews, the boys from the Italian 
homes, the boys of foreign parentage — in Boston 
are reading better literature than the boys of Ameri- 
can parentage. They come here, they tell us, and 
ask for biographies of Americans, and they get the 
best ; they come and ask for the history of American 



62 CHAPEL TALKS 

institutions, and they get the finest, and when they 
have read them they come for more. 

This fact is indorsed by the librarian of the city 
of Newark. You will find in the Outlook he says 
precisely the same thing, though doubtless he had 
no knowledge of what the librarians of Boston had 
said. If this is so, isn't it true that the children of 
the immigrants, however degraded, are the hope of 
the land ? Think of it, will you ? 

I was talking with a man a few weeks since in 
the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, who has had 
much to do with public schools, much to do with 
the foreign population ; and he indorsed every word 
of this that I have told you. Said he, "It is simply 
astonishing how ambitious the children of these im- 
migrants are. No matter what the parents are, the 
boys are longing to prove themselves worthy of 
American citizenship, and they are being assimilated 
with astonishing rapidity/' 

Now, if that be so, and that holds good in the 
future, what have we to dread from immigration? 
But how sad if it be true that the boys of American 
parentage are reading poorer literature than those 
of foreign parentage! Can it be so? What will 
inevitably result? Foreigners will beat the native 
product every time. 

My wife taught in the Everett School in Boston, 
and in her room of forty or fifty pupils, most of 
whom were out of the best families in Boston at 
that time, being in a district where the leading 



CHAPEL TALKS 63 

American families resided, the finest pupil in that 
school was a little Irish girl whose clothing indicated 
extreme poverty. We have her picture in our home 
— a little, bright-eyed Irish girl that beat all the rest 
in scholarship. 

It was a saying of Horace Greeley that those peo- 
ples who lived on wheat chiefly, as the basis of their 
diet, would be the finest in physical organization 
and physical vigor known to civilization. Wheat 
was the diet of the highest races of the civilized 
world physically — that was his statement ; and how 
often he repeated it, and called upon the nation to 
grow wheat and to eat wheat ! 

But what will be the finest characteristics of 
civilization spiritually? It will depend upon the 
ideals taken into the souls of the youth. If we can 
get the American youth to read the best of litera- 
ture, and eschew the poorest, if we can get them, 
like those foreign boys out of these homes of the 
poorest immigrants, to ask for the best in our libra- 
ries, and to read and to feed upon such literature, 
this nation will have nothing to fear. 

The richest of material upon which the soul can 
subsist is to be found in the Bible. In addition to 
that which is the basis of our civilization, we ought 
to read the finest biography and the best history, to 
read the works that will give us the highest ideals 
of character, of custom, of social manners, life, and 
conduct. 

Cultivate a taste for good books, for the best of 



64 CHAPEL TALKS 

books, feed your souls on the wheat of noble 
thought, of pure ideals, and we will risk your fu- 
ture. You will come out strong, vigorous, true ; but 
if you feed on chaff, better for the nation if you 
were buried out of sight. You will be poor speci- 
mens of citizenship. 

Let us never despair of the republic while it can 
be said of the children of the immigrants that they 
are fed intellectually on the best of reading; but 
never let it be said of American boys that they are 
reading a poorer class of books. God forbid that ! 

Philosophy of Life 

We do not go very far in this world before we 
come to the settled conviction that there are some 
things that we cannot control. There are forces 
about us that overmaster us, bring us into strait 
places, bereavements that we cannot resist, perplexi- 
ties and trials and sorrows that no human foresight 
can put aside. We seem to be the victims of fate. 

Take the calamity at Lakeport. You may talk 
about the wonderful intelligence of man, his genius, 
his ingenuity to provide against evils; but yet you 
see there the helplessness of man. There were 
houses of dry timber — how could you prevent that 
in such a drought as this ? There was a wind like a 
gale — who could stop that wind ? And there was a 
little spark. Well, you say, that might have been 
avoided. Yes, but these little fires often begin with- 
out human responsibility. No care or foresight 



CHAPEL TALKS 65 

seems to provide against them. What is the result ? 
A whole community homeless. Multitudes have lost 
all that they had. They are turned out after a life 
of toil. Take the floods out in Kansas — where is 
the human ingenuity that could provide against this 
downpouring of the clouds and swelling of the 
rivers? The fact of it is, we can study and think 
and plan, make arrangements against these forces, 
but they come down on us at times out of the un- 
seen skies, and we are overwhelmed, and we cannot 
help ourselves. 

How are you going to meet these things? You 
do not know what is before you. I do not know. 
I am as helpless as a chip on a flowing river, the 
prey of forces that I cannot control. 

The richest legacy on earth is a good philosophy 
of life. There can be no peace or happiness without 
it. You talk about science settling the problems of 
life — science is as helpless as everything else. 

Now, there are just two philosophies in life. All 
other philosophies are simply variations of these two 
great systems. One is Stoicism, and the other is the 
Christian philosophy. What is Stoicism? It is 
practical atheism — that is all. It may be modified, 
it may have various special systems, but it is all 
rooted in one system, which is this : "You are sur- 
rounded by fatalistic forces that you cannot control. 
There is no intelligence in them ; there is no heart in 
them; they are heartless, mindless, volitionless. 
You are the creatures of fate, and the best way for 



66 CHAPEL TALKS 

you to do is simply to do the best you can, and when 
you have done that, and are ground to powder, just 
say nothing, just sneer at it, stand like a stone and 
root out all emotion from your nature, and let the 
force grind on while you grin and bear it." That is 
Stoicism. Ah ! Will that make you happy ? 

Now, over against that is the Christian view of 
life. There are very many conceptions of the rela- 
tion of God to the universe and our relations to God, 
but here is the Christian conception: "I have a 
heavenly Father; he is infinite; he is master of all 
these forces ; nothing can touch me without his con- 
sent ; he seeks my highest good ; he wants me to be 
pure and holy like himself ; he loves me — the cross 
proves it — and he is seeking to lead me to purity 
and holiness ; and in doing that, sometimes when he 
wants to bring me to my senses, when I forget him, 
my kind heavenly Father gives me a little sorrow ; 
he lets these forces come down upon me; he crushes 
me ; he bereaves me ; he permits the tornado to sweep 
away my property ; he lets the fire burn up my home ; 
he turns me out of doors. Why? Because he loves 
me, and when he sees that I am getting selfish he 
wants to bring me to my senses; he wants me to 
trust him and love him, and he has promised to care 
for me if I do; but I have forgotten him, and he 
wants to bring me back to sincere service, grateful 
love, and full submission to his will. That is what 
it all means. When the fire burns my home, God 
speaks to me and says, 'Love me more, my child.' 



CHAPEL TALKS 67 

When the flood sweeps away my property, turns me 
out, and takes away my family, God has spoken to 
me tenderly, and he weeps while I weep. He sympa- 
thizes with me, and he says, 'My child, you are only 
here for a day, come home, come home to me and be 
ready to live with me forever.' " 

Now, these are the two philosophies of the uni- 
verse. Which are you going to take? Which will 
make you happier? Which will bring out your 
powers to the greatest extent? O, give me the 
Christian philosophy. Let me hear my Saviour say, 
"Take no anxious thought for the morrow ; you do 
not know what will come to you; God knows; he 
will take care of you ; let him care for you ; seek to 
do his will, and all will be given you that is essen- 
tial." 

Now, my young friends, take your choice. I tell 
you science — boasted science, alone — aside from 
that Book and the revelations of God, will never 
give you the Christian philosophy, never. Science 
may help you when you get hold of it. It is useful, 
it has its own place ; but beware of atheistic science. 
When you get into hours of darkness and sadness 
that theory of life will bring you no peace — only 
Christian philosophy will satisfy you then. 

Training 

Recently there has been issued a series of books 
on animal life in the woods. These nature books 
are all interesting and profitable, some more than 



68 CHAPEL TALKS 

others. I have just finished reading The School of 
the Woods. The writer is a Mr. Long. The book 
has been very sharply criticised by John Burroughs 
as fanciful and ridiculous; and I am inclined to 
sympathize with him very largely. The author 
seeks to prove that animals are not guided so much 
by instinct as by training — that the instincts in ani- 
mals are very weak, and that their peculiarities and 
habits are the result of the teachings of their par- 
ents; and he gives illustrations falling under his 
observation — illustrations that seem to me to be very 
farfetched. And his very broad generalizations 
are very hasty, at that. He is an inductive reasoner. 
I would like the school to ask the members of the 
Psychology class what inductive reasoning is — it 
will do them good to tell you, if you do not know; 
but this book is full of inductive reasoning of a very 
hasty kind. From the very fewest data he draws 
universal conclusions, and he seems to me to be very 
imaginative on the subject of the training of animals 
by their parents. 

But there are some things that are good in the 
book. In the preface he asserts that the first lesson 
that an animal gives to its young is that of absolute 
obedience. Every little animal learns that lesson 
very early, and the parent is very careful to teach 
it — that is his statement. After they have learned 
the lesson of obedience, absolute obedience, to pa- 
rental authority, then comes the training of the 
little one. 



CHAPEL TALKS 69 

Then he goes on to say that the human family can 
learn a great deal from the animal, and that is really 
the finest point in the book. There is no training 
that is worth much to you and me that does not be- 
gin in absolute obedience to parental authority. 
And that is about the last lesson that American par- 
ents are giving to their children. Now, if this book 
will teach parents their first duty to childhood, it 
cannot fail to be a useful book. Submission to 
parental authority is the beginning of all noble char- 
acter. 

Not long since the Outlook sent to a great many 
college presidents a request that these presidents 
should inform the public as to the influence of par- 
ticular schools on the students, in their respective 
colleges. The answers are very important. The 
replies almost all agree that there is not much differ- 
ence in the characteristics of the students in college 
from the various schools that send them there ; but 
most of the college presidents make this response: 
"We notice that the difference in the character of 
our students is the result of the home training more 
than the school training." In last night's Boston 
Evening Transcript there is a comment on these re- 
plies of the presidents, and the summing up of the 
whole is this: "There is more peril to the republic 
from Godless homes than from Godless schools"; 
and I want to indorse that sentiment heartily. If 
Mr. Long is correct, that animals do begin their 
training by teaching the first lesson of implicit obe- 



70 CHAPEL TALKS 

dience to parental authority, and on that as a corner 
stone proceed to build the training of the animal, he 
has illustrated in nature the great truth that in hu- 
man training the corner stone is obedience to pa- 
rental authority, and on that corner stone must be 
reared the superstructure of character that recog- 
nizes the authority of God, the necessity of obe- 
dience to God, and the recognition of the claims of 
God. Now, this writer in the Transcript says the 
peril of the republic comes from that one fact, that 
our homes do not demand implicit obedience in the 
child. Our republic is to live or die through the 
characteristics of our homes. And if you want to 
reform society, my conviction is that you must go 
back to infancy, begin at the cradle, and lay the 
foundations of splendid character in submission to 
parental authority. God grant that we may remem- 
ber that for the sake of our republic ! 

Polish 

Last night I sat in front of the organ in the 
church waiting for the beginning of the services. 
The bright electric lights were pouring their rays 
upon the organ. There was a sheen of beauty about 
it, a polish on the oak wood that attracted my atten- 
tion; and I noticed that the pipes of the organ were 
harmoniously painted, and the whole effect was 
pleasant. And I began to think, "I am delighted 
with the picture, but underneath that picture there 
lies the gross material — that is only a surface polish. 



CHAPEL TALKS 71 

Why wouldn't it have been just as well to have left 
that oak wood all rough and crude, and those pipes 
unpainted? The case would have been just as 
strong without polish — that does not add to the 
strength at all; those pipes would have given forth 
just as rich melody without the paint as with it. 
Why paint it, why polish it?" And I thought, that 
is to give pleasure to the one who looks at it, and 
that is useful. Strength is not all we need. We 
need polish. 

Then I began to think of what I had been saying 
to you in the past two or three weeks about the 
necessity of having strong convictions and vigorous 
character. It occurred to me, what if we have the 
vigor of the oak, what if we are strong, what if we 
are honest, what if we are truthful, if we lack the 
polish of good manners, those graces of the spirit 
that charm us ? And then I began to think of the 
Christ, how strong he was, how mighty were his 
convictions, how ready he was to be tested. Like 
the oak, there was infinite power in him ; but there 
was more than that, there was such gentleness, such 
grace, such polish of character that no one can look 
at him without being made clean. There was the 
beauty of the Lord on him. 

There are a great many people who pride them- 
selves on the strength of their character and on their 
rugged honesty; but rugged honesty without man- 
ners doesn't charm us. You and I need rugged char- 
acter. We need to be strong ; but in addition to that, 



72 CHAPEL TALKS 

let us cultivate the outward manners of life, gentle- 
ness, grace, courtesy. Some people pride themselves 
on being brusque, thorny ; they will wound you un- 
necessarily. They are coarse in their speech. But 
how much sweeter life would be, how much more 
we should enjoy them in the home and in society, if 
they only had the polish of fine, delicate manners. 

Now, let us have both. You young men and you 
young ladies, do not despise good breeding. Do not 
despise the delicacy of good social life. Those 
graces that belong to humanity — let us cultivate 
them, let us cultivate them in school ; but underneath 
them — for they are only on the surface — let us see 
to it that we have the solid, good fiber of the oak. 

Soul Soil 

I have a few rows of potatoes in my garden. A 
few days ago I dug them. In about half the rows 
the potatoes were large and excellent, and in the 
other half they were very poor. And I began to 
consider the reason why. It is a good thing always 
to ask questions. We add to our knowledge in that 
way, and I learned a lesson from those potatoes. I 
examined the soil and I found where the potatoes 
were large and there was a good crop the soil was 
rich and loamy; but where the potatoes were very 
small the soil was very poor, scarcely more than 
hard pan. 

This morning I look over a crowd of young life. 
I ask myself, what will be the harvest of this year? 



CHAPEL TALKS 73 

what will be the fruitage in conduct and character ? 
And I answer it in this way : I cannot tell, for I do 
not know what you have brought us. If you young 
people have come here with hearts enriched with 
holy thoughts, noble aspirations, splendid purposes 
in life, if the soil of your soul is like the good soil 
in my garden, we shall have a magnificent harvest. 
But if you have brought only spiritual hard pan, a 
soul that is weak and trifling, with no soil in it, in 
vain will be all our efforts to bring forth a harvest, 
unless there be a change in you. 

The difference in human beings, after all, is a 
difference in the soil of the soul. If you in the past 
have read splendid books, good literature, if you 
have associated with noble character, if you have 
your hearts stirred with precious impulses, if your 
soul has been enriched with high and noble think- 
ing, I will risk you. There will be a splendid 
product here. But if you have read sensational 
literature only, if your thoughts have been low, 
weak, and vile, if you have associated with poor 
character, if you bring to us poor spiritual soil, we 
cannot do much with you. We can plant our seed 
in hard pan, but there will be but little product. 
Therefore, I do not know what are to be the results 
of this year; but when I look into your faces, the 
faces of these strangers, my heart is encouraged. 
I see here, behind these flashing eyes and these ex- 
pressive countenances, what I think is splendid soul 
soil. It cheers us. We think there is going to be a 



74 CHAPEL TALKS 

royal result of this year's work in this school, be- 
cause we think you have hearts ready for the truth, 
ready to be impressed with all righteous thoughts, 
holy aims, and noble ambitions. 

O, my young friends, if you are conscious that 
your hearts are not rich because your reading and 
your thinking in the past have been of a poor quality, 
let me here this morning urge you to make a choice 
of better things. Let all sensational literature alone. 
Read only the best. Associate only with the good 
and the noble, let your thinking be choice and rich, 
and that thinking will fertilize your hearts and bring 
you out as noble characters ere this year shall come 
to an end. This is the lesson from my potato patch. 
Do not forget it. God bless this young life. May 
there be rich heart life here. Then these teachers 
will be encouraged and their hearts thrilled with 
gladness at the close of this year, as they see the 
progress that you have made, and see the glorious 
prophecies of noble men and women going out of 
this school to bless the world. Let us work to- 
gether, therefore; but remember only soul soil can 
be made by thinking — it is the character of your 
thoughts that is to determine who you are in this 
world. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

Seed Selection 

I want to talk to your parents this morning, and 
not to you ; and yet I want to make you the medium 
by which what I say shall come to them. You are 



CHAPEL TALKS 75 

soon to say, "Merry Christmas/' and right after you 
say, "Merry Christmas," please tell them what I shall 
say to you this morning. I do not know that they 
need it. I do not know but they are all right. Let 
us presume that they are, that they need no advice 
from this platform — blessed parents if they do not ! 
But if they do not need it, possibly somebody living 
alongside of them may be benefited by what I shall 
say. So please carry the news home, and the news 
is this : Tell them that the farmers out in Iowa have 
increased their crop of corn by millions of bushels 
by selecting the best seed. Now, that is good intelli- 
gence — right after "Merry Christmas" tell them 
that. They will be glad to hear it. It is a great 
thing to have a big corn crop. 

But tell them this also : "There is a greater crop 
than that, and that is the crop of character in the 
home, and that crop is increased by selecting 
thoughts for the children. That is my text. 
Thoughts are the seeds of character, and when 
planted in the soil of the soul, and carefully nur- 
tured, will bring forth a marvelous harvest. Who 
is it that ought to select the seed for the little ones 
but the parents ? That is their duty — tell them that. 
Tell them that they should direct the thinking of 
their children, that it is their duty under God to 
plant the seeds of truth in the heart of childhood 
and to nurture those seeds of truth, that there may 
come forth a wonderful harvest in the home. 

Tell them that that is done by getting good books 



76 CHAPEL TALKS 

for their children to read. O, how many parents 
won't spend one cent for a good book; but they will 
give five dollars for a splendid hat with a feather 
on it for the daughter. No money for good seed, 
but plenty of money to feed vanity and foolishness. 
Tell them that — do not forget it. Tell them that 
every home ought to have a good Christian news- 
paper in it for the children to read, full of splendid 
truth, full of the choicest seed for character. Tell 
them that. O, how many parents there are who 
cannot afford to have a Christian newspaper, but 
they can get some sensational sheet that ministers 
to the devil's work. They have no money for a good 
Christian newspaper, but they can buy a splendid 
buggy for the boy, to feed his vanity. 

Now, this may not be necessary advice to your 
parents, but there will be a good many living near 
them that ought to hear it. And tell them that their 
duty is, when the sun goes down, if possible, to stay 
at home and plant good seed in the children before 
they go to bed, because multitudes of parents run off 
for clubs and theaters and every place but home, 
and let the children run away, when the sun goes 
down, to get the vilest seed that the devil can put 
into their souls. 

O, parents, parents ! Do you want to know what 
joy is ? It is to have growing up the tender plants 
in the home, with Christian characters, with noble 
convictions of right, with hearts filled with the 
grace of God, noble boys and girls, to be a pride 



CHAPEL TALKS 77 

and a glory for one's declining years. Better prod- 
uct that, infinitely, than great harvests of corn 
or gold. 

It is a joy even to a wicked parent. Don't you 
know that? How often I have heard the wicked 
say to me, "O, I have got a good boy." Ah, how 
they rejoice in goodness, though they do not possess 
it themselves! 

Now, this is the parents' duty to choose the seed, 
to choose the truth, to choose the thoughts in the 
early years of life, and to plant them in the soil of 
childhood and nurture them. And when I say that 
I am not saying anything new. Moses said that 
thousands of years ago. "Hear, O Israel/' he said, 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and thou shalt keep these words" (that is, 
these seeds) "that I have given unto you, and thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children" — 
mark that. Turn now, and read the sixth chapter 
of Deuteronomy, and there you will find in sub- 
stance all that I say to you this morning : "And thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou 
liest down, and when thou risest up." Plant good 
seed there, that there may be a blessed harvest to 
your ultimate joy and to the glory of God. When 
you say, "Merry Christmas," tell your parents what 
I have said, though they may not need it. I hope 
they do not. 



78 CHAPEL TALKS 

Lofty Purposes 

Last Saturday afternoon I heard a paper on the 
question, "Should literature have a purpose in it?" 
The reading of the paper was followed by a very 
able discussion. A guest was invited to express his 
views, and after some very pleasant remarks he sud- 
denly halted, his eyes flashed fire, and his whole 
countenance assumed a deep seriousness, and with 
intense feeling he cried out, "I want to say that any 
book without a purpose is no book at all, and there 
is no great work in music or art that is not the 
product of a high and holy purpose ; and the higher 
and nobler the purpose, the more immortal the 
work." On this for a few moments he spoke with 
rare eloquence, and every heart seemed to thrill with 
the consciousness of the truth of what he was say- 
ing. 

Doubtless that is no new thought to you. You 
have heard it from this platform again and again, 
that no life is worth living that is not actuated by 
some supreme purpose ; and until we can get some 
great purpose in a boy or girl, life will be useless to 
them. I want to reinforce that thought this morning. 
All great life is the product of a great purpose tak- 
ing hold of the personality and sinking our selfish- 
ness out of sight; and whatever that purpose may 
be, it must be a worthy purpose to bring about any 
everlasting good. 

We do not care what purpose you get, young 
people, provided it be broader than yourselves. If 



CHAPEL TALKS 79 

your purpose be selfish, simply bounded by self in 
any form, you cannot expect to bring forth any 
noble product ; and the richer and broader that pur- 
pose, the nobler the cause, the greater will be the 
result of your life. Some cause must dissolve you, 
melt you, move you, burn in you, if you are going 
to do anything in this world. It must unify all your 
powers, and if you have genius in you, great and 
wonderful may be the product. 

Now, there may be a purpose that will be useful, 
but it may be simply material. A great many per- 
sons are seized with a purpose, but it is simply com- 
mercial, worldly, bounded by this life. Cecil 
Rhodes seems to have been a man of that kind — he 
was actuated with the idea of materialism, commer- 
cialism; he did not seem to rise to the height of 
Christianizing Africa, but he would civilize it for 
commercial ends. He wrought a great work, after 
all, in a certain line, by preparing the way for others. 
Not so Livingstone. Livingstone had the great pur- 
pose of Christianizing Africa, and his name will live 
forever as her great benefactor. 

You want some high, ethical purpose to take hold 
of you, involving not only your own good, but the 
good of the world. The richer and nobler that pur- 
pose, the greater will be the product. But, O, I beg 
of you, do not simply drift along, the sport of your 
environment, and be blown hither and thither with- 
out being anchored to anything. In your youth, 
knowing your power, knowing yourself and your 



80 CHAPEL TALKS 

limitations, ask yourself, What can I do in this 
world to make it better ? Where can I work to the 
glory of God and to the well-being of men? Let 
that purpose possess you. Then if you have genius, 
your genius will have wings, inspiration, and God 
only knows what you may do. God uses only men 
and women of that kind to do great things. 

O, get your purpose on your knees — there is the 
place to find it. Get down alone, in the silence and 
solitude of your own room and your own person- 
ality, and say, "O, God, what am I made for ? Help 
me to find my mission, then help me to fill it." 

Light Insufficient 

We have been talking to you about light and the 
conscience. There is a theory that all that society 
has to do to put away its miseries is to get more 
light. If we can only educate men, give them secu- 
lar and moral instruction, all our miseries will come 
to an end. 

Now, that theory is a very false one; it won't 
work in practice. It is not true that education, such 
as we give in our schools, necessarily makes society 
what it ought to be. It is a false staff on which we 
are leaning. It is true that as we increase the light 
the great mass of men may improve ; but this is not 
true of individuals, for you must take into account 
another factor in human experience, namely, the 
native opposition in the human heart to light, to 
right, to truth. Right conduct does not depend on 



CHAiPEL TALKS 81 

the amount of light that pours into the human soul. 
A man may be intelligent as to duty, but he may 
have a native opposition to the duty. He may re- 
sist the light that comes to him and touches his con- 
science and creates in him a feeling of obligation, 
and it may only lead him to assert, "I won't do it, I 
won't obey it, I won't do right." Now increase the 
amount of light, intensify it, and that native op- 
position may grow by what it feeds upon and in- 
crease in corresponding intensity, until he may say 
to any amount of light that you can shed upon his 
soul, "I won't, I won't." 

What is it that happened to Pharaoh when he 
hardened his heart ? It was simply that spirit. He 
began with a little revelation of his duty, and he 
said, "I won't." Moses gave him more and more 
light, and he hardened his heart and intensified his 
opposition. And just so it is with multitudes of us. 
You can give any amount of knowledge to some na- 
tures, and they will rise up in their moral freedom 
and say, "I won't, I won't." 

Now, that is not true of the mass of the people, 
or else there would be no hope of progress in the 
human race; but it is true of individuals. 

What do we mean by conversion? Conversion 
implies two factors. The first is a new attitude to- 
ward the light. If there be a natural tendency in us 
to resist the light, the first step is taken in conversion 
when a man, in his freedom, says, instead of "I 
won't," "I will." Instead of opposing the light, he 



82 CHAPEL TALKS 

accepts it. That is the first step. It is a new at- 
titude toward the truth. But that is not its comple- 
tion. That man may still, actuated by reason and 
judgment, revise his purposes and say, "I will," and 
yet dislike the light. 

Now, in a complete conversion there is another 
process, know in theological language as regenera- 
tion, wherein, by a divine and invisible power, there 
is created in his heart a relish for the light. When 
conversion is completed the man not only turns 
down his opposition and says, "I will," and obeys 
the truth, but he finds springing up in his soul a 
relish for it and delight in it ; and then he is a new 
creature, "old things are passed away; behold, all 
things are become new," and that which he once 
hated now he loves. He hated the light, the duty, 
the right; now he delights in it. But the process, 
you perceive, is first submission to the light, accept- 
ing it, resolving to obey it, and then springing up in 
his heart a delight in it. And that does not depend 
on the amount of light. A man may do that with 
very little light. 

Take the poor negroes of the South, just out of 
human slavery, kept in ignorance and semibarbarism 
through that awful institution that dwarfed all their 
moral faculties. They have but very little appre- 
hension of duty, of right; but if they say, "I will 
obey the light I have," God accepts them, God ac- 
cepts them though they may be very imperfect, 
judged by our standard of Christianity. But iri 



CHAPEL TALKS 83 

order to hold that acceptance, as the light in- 
creases, as the truth multiplies, as the sense of duty 
enlarges, they must still keep up that spirit of 
obedience and submission, or else all will be re- 
versed and they will lose their acceptance with 
God. 

Now, what is the practical result of all this teach- 
ing? It is this: You and I start out in life with a 
natural disposition to do what we please, more or 
less powerful. There comes a time in our experi- 
ence, and it may come very early, it may come 
almost in the very earliest years of consciousness, 
when we say, "I will accept the truth." That is the 
beginning of a new life. Hitherto, as my duty has 
been revealed to me, I have said, "I won't" ; now I 
will say to-day, "I will obey the light — it may be a 
very small amount, but I will obey it." As the light 
increases, if we continue to say, "I will obey it," we 
grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth, in 
righteous living, in holy character. If we turn 
around and refuse to obey it, we go the other way, 
and become guilty ; conscience condemns us, and we 
lose our moral standing. 

O, how necessary it is for you and for me to form 
the habit now, now — not to-morrow, but now, this 
day — of saying to ourselves, "I will obey what I 
know to be right, I will do it to-day, I will not put 
it off until to-morrow. I do not know much about 
my duty, but what I do know I will accept." That 
is the beginning of the nobler life. 



84 CHAPEL TALKS 

There may come to each one of you this morning 
a sense of duty and obligation. What shall we do 
with it? If we say, "I will," we put ourselves in 
the right attitude toward the light, however much 
it may be, or however little; and that is the begin- 
ning of a better life. 

Defective Conscience 

I do not know anything more annoying than to 
have a conversation cut right off in the middle of it, 
just as you have come to a crisis in the talk. I had 
that experience some years ago. I was riding in a 
railroad train, approaching my destination. I sat by 
the side of a lawyer, and we had a conversation on 
various matters, finally touching on conscience. I 
have been talking to you more or less about the con- 
science this term. That lawyer became red in the 
face the moment the word "conscience" was men- 
tioned, because he had an antipathy to it. "Con- 
science," said he, and his eye flashed and the blood 
ran to his cheeks — "conscience — what a curse it has 
been to humanity! What great crimes," said he, 
"have not been committed in the name of con- 
science?" And then he went on to speak of thumb- 
screws and inquisitions, and the terrible penalties 
visited upon innocent and honest men because of 
conscience ; and he was for tearing conscience right 
out of the soul, or being utterly indifferent to its 
teachings, because of these crimes in human history. 
His wrath knew no bounds. 



CHAPEL TALKS 85 

And then I was just prepared to talk to him. I 
said, "Sir, you don't believe in the Bible. Do you 
know why conscience has done these things? Be- 
cause these persons have not been rightly instructed 
by that Book. All that you have said is simply a 
proof of the necessity of the Word of God, the rule 
of right to instruct the conscience that has wrought 
out so many crimes." And then the brakeman cried 
out my station, and I had to leave just when I had 
reached the main issue. 

That conversation has never been finished. But I 
did want to go on and talk it out, and try to show 
him that the very Book he was antagonizing was the 
only Book, when properly interpreted and under- 
stood, that could educate and enlighten the human 
conscience, so that the conscience, being properly 
enlightened, should cease to prompt these acts of in- 
justice and violence against human beings. Con- 
science uninstructed — what a peril ! 

Did you ever examine a carriage wheel ? When 
you go home examine your father's carriage wheel, 
and see how it is cut up into sections, one or two 
spokes in a section ; but when these sections are put 
together you have a perfect sphere, you have a car- 
riage wheel. How would you like to ride in a car- 
riage which had only one or two sections in the 
wheels? Wouldn't you have a hard time of it? 
You must have a complete wheel, a perfect circle, to 
make your journey agreeable to your physical 
system. 



86 CHAPEL TALKS 

Now, why has the human conscience indorsed 
such crimes against humanity ? I answer, because it 
has been educated in sections, and not as a perfect 
sphere. The Word of God enlightens the whole 
conscience. When we study it and understand it, it 
does not permit us to injure our fellow men. Had 
the Inquisition, had these thumbscrews — or those 
who managed them — been thoroughly conversant 
with the Word of God instead of a little section of 
it; had the conscience been educated as it ought to 
have been — the whole of the conscience, not a part 
of it — society would have moved on like the run of 
a carriage wheel, without a jolt or a jar. 

I have told you in these Wednesday morning talks 
that we need light. So we do; but we need the 
whole of it, we do not need a little section of light- 
that always leads to disaster. We need to know all 
our duty; and God has been pleased to give us the 
perfect sphere of duty. He has been pleased to give 
us truth that will educate the conscience, so that it 
will not wrong our fellow men; but if we open our 
hearts and our souls to the perfect light, then we 
shall have a conscience so wisely instructed that we 
will do his will, and his will will bring about the 
spirit of heaven. 

Therefore, when you hear men railing against 
conscience, all you have to do is to tell them, "You 
are all wrong; conscience is all right in its sphere, 
but it needs the perfect light of God's revealed will 
in order to fit it for its mission." 



CHAPEL TALKS 87 

Right Revealed 

In our talks hitherto we have pointed out that 
right has its origin in the divine nature, is expressed 
in the divine will, and is discerned by a power with- 
in our souls that we call conscience; that the con- 
science has no light in itself — the light that instructs 
it comes from outside. How is that light revealed 
if it comes from God? 

There are two methods by which God reveals his 
will to us. The first method is called the teachings 
of natural religion, the second the teachings of re- 
vealed religion. By natural religion we mean the 
results of human experience. Now, we assume that 
God loves us and seeks our highest good. We as- 
sume that any course of conduct that leads to per- 
manent happiness, to the development of our 
powers, to the perfection of our natures, must be in 
harmony with the divine will. Assuming that, we 
learn from experience and observation what that 
will is. How do we learn what substances are good 
for food? We learn by experience. Any article 
that ministers to the health of the body and the per- 
fection of our physical powers must be good food. 
Any article that poisons the body, diminishes its 
power, decreases its happiness, was not meant for 
food. Thus we reason, and we reason correctly. 
In that way we find out from experience what is 
good for us and what is bad for us. 

Now, the same is true in regard to any course of 
conduct. Reasoning from the light of experience, 



88 CHAPEL TALKS 

we draw this conclusion, that any course of conduct 
that ministers to human happiness permanently, that 
develops the human powers greatly, that leads to the 
perfection of human nature, must be in harmony 
with God's will. That is the way we get at the 
teachings of natural religion. 

But don't you see how defective that method is? 
In the first place, somebody has to suffer before we 
learn what is right. Somebody has to suffer before 
we can learn what is good food and what is poison ; 
and do you not see that with the play of passion 
disordering our judgments, how difficult it is for us 
to learn what is duty, what is right, if we have to 
learn it by our own experience? 

God has a better way for us through revelation. 
He has given us his own will in that blessed Book, 
he has revealed the true religion; he has spoken to 
us, has sent us the light that we might find out what 
is duty, especially in our moral relations. He has 
put it before us very clearly in two ways — in pre- 
cept, in commandment. But there is another way 
better than that, and that is by example. Do we 
want our consciences instructed as to what is duty? 
Do we want to find out the will of God? Turn now 
to the blessed Bible. There you will find it explained 
to us, explained in precept. But you will find some- 
thing more — there is a living character, you will find 
there a model Man. You will find there life illus- 
trated. You will find the right expressed in the life 
of Jesus Christ, 



CHAPEL TALKS 89 

Go, then, and face the Master, go and take the 
Christ, study his motives, study his conduct, study 
his disposition, study his spirit, and in all these you 
will discover what God wants you to do. He has 
clearly revealed it to humanity, what man ought to 
do and what he ought to be. Now, there is the light 
coming from Jesus Christ. That is the final arbiter 
for us of duty; there is where the conscience can 
be instructed perfectly and not go astray. The light 
of natural religion is like the starlight at night. If 
you are sailing on the ocean you are guided in your 
course by the stars if they are shining; but the star- 
light is but dim when compared with the light of the 
sun. Thank God we have the light of the sun to 
guide us through this world. It is Jesus Christ, the 
example of what right is. 

"Whence Comes Right? 

Last Wednesday morning I spoke to you on right, 
defining what it was. Now comes a question that 
has involved the deepest thought of the ages — where 
does right come from? What is its origin? Who 
made it, did anybody make it ? What are the foun- 
dations of right? Socrates wrestled with that 
question. Plato and Aristotle followed suit, and all 
the great moral thinkers of the world have expressed 
their opinion. 

Various answers have been given to that question. 
Some say that right comes from that which gives 
you pleasure — anything that makes us happy is 



go CHAPEL TALKS 

right. That is the basis of the Epicurean philoso- 
phy. Others have taken higher ground and have 
said that the useful is right ; but what is the useful? 
That leaves everything hanging in uncertainty. 
Others have said the will of the majority makes the 
right — that seems to be the American doctrine ; but 
we ought to repudiate it. Before the war, when 
William H. Seward in a speech referring to slavery 
said, "There is a higher law than the will of the 
American people," how he was ridiculed, how he 
was condemned for that expression ! But wasn't he 
right ? If there be an immutable right, where does it 
come from? It has been said it is the will of God 
that makes the right — that is the basis of Calvinistic 
philosophy. The sovereignty of God is the one great 
principle that Calvin upheld. But it led to a great 
error. One man put it as strong as this : "If God 
commands us to hate him, it would be our duty to 
hate him" — as if it were possible for such a com- 
mand to be given ! He stated a practical absurdity. 

Where does right come from? What is its 
origin? Is it the will of God? Ah, it springs from 
something deeper than the will of God, it comes 
from the nature of God. One school of philoso- 
phers has said that right comes from the nature of 
things. Now, that person just missed the truth — it 
does not come from the nature of things, but right 
comes from the nature of a person. That is a very 
different proposition. Right springs from the na- 
ture of God. The will of God is the expression of 



CHAPEL TALKS 91 

that nature. Back of the will of God lies a perfect 
constitution, a perfect personality; and the right 
springs from that personality, and directs the will 
of God and always controls it. Now, the will of 
God is always in harmony with the right ; but back 
of the will, which is the expression of the nature, 
lies the nature itself. God, being absolutely perfect, 
absolutely wise, absolutely good, absolutely just, 
absolutely holy, is the ground and eternal basis of 
right ; and that right is expressed through his will ; 
but in order to know the right we must know his 
will as he expresses it to us. 

Now, do you not see that, if that be the case, right 
is a principle immutable? There are two great 
schools of moral philosophy. One teaches that right 
is variable, is adjusted to circumstances. The other 
teaches that right is eternal, unchangeable; and we 
indorse the latter school, because right inheres in the 
nature of God himself. 

And another principle is true if that be so — right 
is as universal as the nature of God. Right in Cali- 
fornia is the same as right in New Hampshire. 
Right on Jupiter is the same as right on the earth, 
for God is in Jupiter the same as in the earth. Right 
is everywhere an immutable principle. There are no 
two standards of right. There is only one, and 
that standard never changes. Right is as eternal as 
the divine existence — you cannot get away from it. 
Right was the same in the beginning of time as in 
the end of time. Right is the same in heaven as in 



92 CHAPEL TALKS 

perdition. Right is the same in the earth every- 
where, always. You cannot change it, because you 
cannot change God's nature. 

Now, our duty is to adjust ourselves to this great 
eternal and universal principle that has its origin in 
the divine nature. You and I must harmonize our- 
selves to that principle of right, or we cannot be in 
harmony with our God. He who does that has 
heaven already in his soul. He who does that need 
not fear but heaven will be his forever. He who 
willfully and intelligently does not do it can never 
see the kingdom of God. That is common sense. 
O, then, how necessary that you and I should be 
finding out what that right is, and adjusting our- 
selves to it, that we may be fitted for the kingdom 

of heaven ! 

The Soul's Majesty 

Only a great nature will carry an algebra to a ball 
game, as one of you did yesterday ! And this is an 
illustration of the greatness of man. No animal 
would ever think of doing that — only a rational be- 
ing would covet such an hour for study ! I want you 
to appreciate who you are. We read this morning 
that God had put all things under our feet — all the 
sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field. That 
means that we are something greater than the mere 
animal life on the earth. Now, we ought to appre- 
ciate that. 

In many respects animals are far superior to us. 
Many of them are stronger than we are. Who can 



CHAPEL TALKS 93 

compare the strength of the greatest athlete with the 
strength of an elephant or an ox? Some of them 
are superior to us in their senses. Where are there 
nostrils that will compare with those of a hound 
tracking the rabbit? Where is there an eye in a 
human head that will compare with the eye of an 
eagle? Some animals have senses far superior to 
ours. They can perceive more keenly than we can, 
and yet they cannot use what they see or what they 
hear or what they smell as we can. There is put into 
you and me something that the animals have not — a 
rational and a moral nature, for purposes high and 
noble. And we ought to appreciate this fact. 
Where is there an animal who can make a garden as 
man can make it? Where is there an animal that 
can build architectural beauties and glory like the 
Congressional Library at Washington ? They build 
only as they are taught ; they never improve on their 
architectural genius, never. Man can improve, and 
it is this fact that indicates his superiority. 

Thirty years ago a man built a cesspool to his 
house, and he was afraid it would not hold the 
sewage, and he built a second one and attached them 
by a pipe, and then he put a pipe in the first cesspool 
and ran it up by his house. Six years afterward he 
wanted to clean out the cesspools, supposing that 
they would about be full ; and he found to his aston- 
ishment that there was nothing in them but a little 
sediment in the bottom. And he began to think. 
Now, an animal never would have thought. But he 



94 CHAPEL TALKS 

began to think : "Why is it that these cesspools are 
not full? What has become of all the matter that 
has gone into them through the six years?" And 
as he thought, a suggestion came to him: "Here 
is a way to dispose of sewage, if I can find out the 
process." 

Now, that man was not educated in a laboratory 
of a scientist, and had no idea that bacteria had 
taken away all that cess matter; but he began to 
think; and to-day our cities are beginning to adopt 
the product of that man's thought, to get rid of their 
sewage. I have almost finished reading the speech 
of a lawyer, recently delivered before the Circuit 
Court in Boston, regarding the patent that that man 
took out on his cesspool for getting rid of sewage. 
It is a marvelous history, and very marvelous pos- 
sibilities are in it; and it is said by some that the 
Bell telephone will not equal in value the discovery 
of that man, because he began to think what led to 
the condition of things in his cesspool. Where will 
you find an animal that could have produced those 
facts and drawn those inferences and come to those 
conclusions and made those inventions ? 

O, wonderful, wonderful is the mind of man. 
You are better than the beasts of the field. You are 
to fulfill a greater mission, and it is unworthy of you 
to give yourselves up simply to an animal life. You 
should live for the life of the spirit. 

Then there are other qualities in man that mark 
him as superior to the animals, namely, the power 



CHAPEL TALKS 95 

to worship in the presence of the Unknown and to 
reverence God. You never yet saw an animal, how- 
ever great its powers or its instincts, that bowed its 
head before God. Now, every man does that. Man 
is a worshiping animal, because he has a moral na- 
ture. Even the savage, when he hears the wind in 
the tree tops, thinks of a power that is beyond him- 
self. And he bows reverently before that unknown 
force indicated by the sighing of the wind in the 
tree tops. He reverences something, though he 
knows not what. 

But you and I, with that blessed Book, have 
learned who it is that we worship — there is revealed 
to us a true conception of the Infinite God. You and 
I, through our wonderful moral and spiritual na- 
tures, can bow and reverently praise and adore the 
personal God. O, remember the wonderful gifts, 
the wonderful faculties, the wonderful powers that 
God has given you, and develop them and improve 
them, and intelligently adore and obey Him who has 
given you being in this world. 

False Teachers 

I want to tell you a few facts this morning. You 
will hear it said again and again that this New 
Testament grew up, nobody knows how, during 
three or four hundred years after the crucifixion of 
Christ. Robert Ingersoll went around the country 
telling that, which indicated that he was either a 
willful falsifier or that he was ignorant. 



9 6 CHAPEL TALKS 

There was a man lived and wrote about that Book 
— I mean the New Testament — about one hundred 
years after the crucifixion of Christ. He was a 
very learned man, a Greek philosopher, and a great 
enemy of Christianity. He was a man who was the 
master of ridicule and malicious statements. He 
used his best powers to overthrow the Christian re- 
ligion. What was his attitude toward the New 
Testament? In his work against Christianity he 
alluded to the New Testament and quoted from it 
over eighty times. Mark you, now, he lived and 
wrote his book about one hundred years after 
Christ's crucifixion. He quotes most of the facts 
that are given us in that New Testament. He tells 
us, in speaking of the Christian system, that it 
teaches us that God came down by his Holy Spirit 
and took possession of a human form like our own, 
that we might become acquainted with him. He 
tells us that that wonderful Being, called Jesus, was 
born of a virgin, that his reputed father was a car- 
penter. He tells us that the wise men came from 
the east, that there was a star that led them, and 
that they came to Herod, and Herod, enraged, killed 
all the children in Bethlehem. He tells us that an 
angel came to Joseph and told him to take the child 
into Egypt. He tells us about the dove's descending 
upon Christ at the baptism, and about John the Bap- 
tist baptizing Christ. He tells us about Jesus's rais- 
ing the dead and feeding the multitudes with loaves 
and fishes ; healing the sick on every hand. He tells 



CHAPEL TALKS 97 

us about the agony in Gethsemane, also about the 
railing of his enemies as he hung upon the cross. 
He tells us about the earthquake and the darkened 
heavens. He tells us of the resurrection of the 
Christ. In other words, all the main facts about 
the life of Christ were written out by this enemy 
within a hundred years of his death. He states the 
doctrines of Christianity just as we hold them in 
the Apostles' Creed to-day, showing that he was fa- 
miliar with the New Testament. 

How could that man have quoted these things so 
accurately if the books had not been written? If 
the books were not in existence substantially as we 
have them to-day, how could he have written these 
facts, taken out of these books — for he tells us, "I 
get these facts from your historical records" ? More 
than that, he tells us that these books were written 
by the disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Now, you will please remember that when this 
man wrote Christianity had spread far and wide. 
Rome was full of Christians, and multitudes pos- 
sessed these books that this man had studied. The 
books must have been in existence, then, some time 
before he wrote this work in opposition. We have 
this testimonial of this enemy to Christianity to this 
fact, and he says the books were written by the dis- 
ciples of Jesus Christ. 

Now, what do you think of a man who comes 
along at this late day, and out of his imagination 
and out of his opposition to Jesus Christ and his 



9 8 CHAPEL TALKS 

gospel tries to make you believe that these books 
were not in existence? Has he any historical basis 
for his statements, or is he seeking out of his im- 
agination to make these books myths and legends 
without historical reality? I want you to know 
these facts, because if you know them they will help 
you when you meet these defamers of Jesus Christ 
arid the enemies of his gospel. 

Only a few days ago in our reading room I read 
a statement of a great German scholar, in which, 
out of his imagination wholly, utterly careless of his- 
torical facts such as I have given you, he goes on to 
state that the story of the resurrection of Christ 
grew up through the generations as a legend and a 
myth, and he wants you to accept his statements as 
true. When I read it there I said, "I will meet these 
things now with the facts of history," such as I 
have given you this morning. 

"Worm Philosophy- 
There was a worm lying under a stone in a field, 
and the worm turned his nervous centers to philoso- 
phy, and this is what he said to himself : "I have been 
here under this stone all my life, and I never saw it 
move ; my father was here all his life, and my grand- 
father, and my great-grandfather, and all my ances- 
tors, and they have sent down word to me that they 
never knew this stone to move. Because the forces 
of nature are immutable and never change, the stone 
cannot move itself, and all experience among the 



CHAPEL TALKS 99 

worms proves that there is nothing to move it. 
Therefore, it cannot be moved; it will lie here for- 
ever and forever." And thus the worm reasoned 
with himself. And wasn't he a good scientist? He 
reasoned from universal experience among the 
worms that that stone would remain there forever. 

And that is modern atheistic science. When it 
talks about miracles and inspirations it adopts 
Hume's positions. Hume said there could not be 
such a thing as a miracle, because he never saw one, 
his father never saw one, his grandfather never saw 
one, nor any of his ancestors ; and the laws of nature 
are immutable. And when we talk about raising a 
man from the dead, he said it was absurd. And that 
is called reasoning. 

But one day there came a new experience to the 
dear old worm. A man came striding across that 
field, a man, and he came up to that stone, and he 
picked it up, and he threw it up into the heavens; 
and the worm looked up and said, "What is this? 
This is a miracle." And it was — to the worm. 

Now, then, of what validity is all this scientific 
reasoning against the possibility of a miracle when 
God comes striding across the spaces of the sky and 
touches a dead man and brings him to life? Any- 
thing stranger in that than there was to the worm 
when the stone is lifted up by a man who is adequate 
to it? Don't you see all the reasoning of that worm 
assumed this fundamental principle — "There isn't 
any man to lift this stone up." And don't you see 



ioo CHAPEL TALKS 

that this scientific reasoning against the possibility 
of miracles assumes, as the worm did, that there is 
no God to raise a dead man? Grant the existence 
of a God, omnipotent and free, and is a miracle 
absurd, if God has a reason for it? Could not he 
pick up a dead man and bring him to life as quickly 
as a man can pick up a stone and throw it into the 
heavens, against all the forces of nature which are 
talked about so learnedly? The facts are that all 
the arguments against miracles and inspiration, and 
the possibilities of them, assume atheism to start 
with, that there is no God to do it. Now, that kind 
of reasoning will never satisfy thoughtful men; and 
as long as you grant the existence of an omnipotent 
Creator, free, forceful, who loves us and seeks our 
highest good, you have granted the fundamental 
principle of all reasoning that miracles are possible, 
and inspiration is likely to ensue. 

Young people, don't be led astray by these as- 
sumptions. Get your foundations right, and you 
will be saved from many heresies and many a foolish 
conclusion. 

True Science 

What is science? That is a word that is frequently 
on our lips. Some would limit it to the knowledge 
of nature. Science is knowledge systematized. 
Knowledge of what ? Knowledge of facts. Science 
confines itself to facts, and seeks an explanation of 
them. What is progress in science? It is progress 
in explaining facts — not any particular class of 



CHAPEL TALKS 101 

facts, but all facts. There are facts pertaining to 
the earth. There are facts pertaining to the stars. 
There are facts pertaining to matter. There are 
facts pertaining to language. There are facts per- 
taining to mind. There are facts pertaining to re- 
ligion. Science deals with all these facts, and not 
any one special class. It seeks an explanation of 
everything. Science does not explain human opin- 
ion, or human assumption, or human theory — that is 
outside its province. These may be put forth to 
help explain facts, but science explains facts. 

Now, facts have two different sources. Facts 
may arise outside of us, or within us. You hear my 
voice. You see me. The fact that I am on this 
platform comes to you outside of yourself. But 
there are feelings within you, there are facts that 
are arising within your soul now. These facts come 
from within. Thus there are two distinct classes 
of facts. But they both rest on the same founda- 
tion. How do you know that I am here ? You say, 
"I see you." How do you know you see me ? You 
are conscious of it. How do you know you have 
feelings in your heart? You reply, "I am conscious 
of them." Consciousness is the last test of facts. 
If you cannot trust your consciousness as to the 
facts within you, you cannot trust your conscious- 
ness as to the facts outside of you. Consciousness 
is the last test of facts. If consciousness does not 
tell the truth, you cannot put confidence in anything. 
Universal skepticism is the result. 



102 CHAPEL TALKS 

True science is the explanation of facts that arise 
outside of us and facts that arise within us. A 
geologist goes out and he sees that there are rocks 
stratified, and he seeks to explain how that fact came 
to pass that the rocks should be stratified. That is 
his mission, to explain the relation of facts, their 
causes and effects. So there are facts that arise 
within us, feelings, volitions, etc. The metaphysi- 
cian explains those facts, or tries to explain them. 
He advances a theory, he puts forth an hypothesis, 
he makes an assumption. Now, these are all valid 
for their purposes ; their nature is to help explain the 
facts. The scientist, therefore, who deals with facts 
outside of us, coming from nature, coming through 
our perceptions, is dealing with one class. The 
metaphysician who examines the facts within us is 
dealing with another class, and the theologian who 
examines the facts in regard to religion is dealing 
with still another class. But it is all science. 

A science, to be true, therefore, is simply a valid 
explanation of facts. Now, false science may come 
from a false explanation of a few facts, or an ex- 
planation of a few that will not meet the demands 
of the many. A complete science must know all the 
facts in that particular class, in order to make a full 
and complete explanation. Does the geologist know 
all the facts pertaining to the formation of this 
earth ? No, he has a great deal to learn yet. There- 
fore geology as a science is incomplete. Has the 
astronomer all the facts pertaining to the stars in 



CHAPEL TALKS 103 

the heavens ? No. Therefore the science of astron- 
omy is incomplete. And so we may speak of any 
science. Do we know all the facts connected with 
religion? Probably not. Therefore the science of 
religion is incomplete — we have not mastered it yet. 
Has any one ever mastered all facts pertaining to 
all the sciences ? Only one, God. He knows all the 
facts, therefore he knows all the explanations. 
Therefore science, with him, is a completed product. 
But that is not true of man. Knowledge is progres- 
sive. The science of theology is incomplete, for 
that reason — we haven't all the facts yet; and if we 
had them, we might reason falsely. 

Now, when Christ said, "I am the truth," he 
meant this: "I know all the facts of the universe, 
and I am the representative of all the facts of the 
heart, of the mind, of nature, of everything." 
There is no error within him, because he under- 
stands it all. One of the greatest difficulties in 
thinking about the facts of life and the universe is 
this : w T e put our opinions in the place of the facts. 
We get up our hypotheses to explain them, and we 
say, "These are true, and I have completed the 
whole work." Conceit, pride, is the peril of the 
thinker. 

Romanes was one of the greatest scientists of 
England. Probably no man ever brought forth a 
greater argument against the doctrines of design, 
or final cause, than Romanes. It is said to have 
been the most masterly argument ever presented by 



io 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

a human mind on that question. He threw away 
Christianity. He did not believe in the Word of 
God. But later he became a devout believer. And 
he wrote some notes that he intended to make into a 
book, answering himself. Those notes were in ex- 
istence, when, unfortunately for us, he passed away 
and left his book incomplete. Romanes in speaking 
of the cause of skepticism, of his own skepticism, 
and of skepticism as he knew it, gives in substance 
this explanation: "There is no explanation of 
skepticism, there can be no explanation of my own 
false reasoning, but intellectual pride." "I took 
pride," he said, "in what I did, and it warped my 
judgment, and I could not see the truth. The rea- 
son why men reject the Word of God and Chris- 
tianity as eternal truth is because of intellectual 
pride." That was the final decision of one who had 
passed through such an experience. 

Now, if you and I are to be scientists in any de- 
partment, examining facts, and trying to bring out 
true explanations of those facts and thus formulate 
a true science, we must get rid of our conceit. We 
must sit humbly at the feet of the Master, we must 
ask of him, "What is truth?" The question that 
Pilate put to Jesus and did not pause for an answer, 
you and I should put to the Infinite : "O, thou In- 
finite Mind, who knowest all things, thou who art 
alone the true scientist, teach me, for I know so lit- 
tle ; help me not to go astray in my reasoning, help 
me to see facts a,s they are, help me to gather the 



CHAPEL TALKS 105 

facts as thou knowest them." The spirit of the 
heart that comes in this attitude before truth will be 
led of God, it will receive wisdom from on high. 
May we always possess it! 

Enthusiasm 

I believe in enthusiasm in play. I have a vivid 
recollection of my boyhood in the old district school- 
house. When the bell rang for recess or the noon 
hour how we rushed out on the field, set up our little 
games, and went to work. O, how we shouted, how 
we danced around in glee, how we wrought for vic- 
tory for the time being! And then, having filled 
ourselves with the enthusiasm and spontaneous joy 
of play, we went back with an appetite for fractions, 
and we fed on them with great delight. That is the 
office of play in this world— to create an appetite 
for better things. We had no constitution, no 
umpire, and no twenty-five cents admission ; but we 
did have glorious times. And when in college, out 
on old Washington Square, we made up our little 
cricket games and for an hour played and shouted 
and laughed and sang, and then returned to our 
Latin and our Greek with an appetite for both. 
That is the office of play — re-creation. And to be 
enthusiastic in it is very helpful. 

But that is only a bonfire — it lasts for an hour. 
The idea of making sport the business of life is un- 
worthy of a man. He is made for something 
greater, richer, nobler. This is only a means to an 



106 CHAPEL TALKS 

end, to fit us for the great responsibilities and richer 
enthusiasms of true manhood. 

I want to talk to you a moment about the most 
enthusiastic man that I know of in human history — 
a man whose enthusiasm was like the great anthra- 
cite coal fires down in the bowels of an Atlantic 
liner, driving the commerce of the world from land 
to land. That man's fire in his soul was fed by fuel 
that will never burn out. He had a great purpose, 
an overmastering passion that filled him with glad- 
ness and the most joyful anticipation of victory. 
That man was the apostle Paul. And what was the 
enthusiastic fire in his soul ? It was this — a purpose 
brought before him by his Master, to destroy the 
works of the devil. Jesus Christ came into this 
world to destroy sin, and the apostle took hold of 
that thought and it became a fire within his heart. 
Now, you know sin is the cause of all human 
wretchedness and human wrongdoing and of all hu- 
man injustice. If we could only get rid of that, what 
a heaven we would have on earth ; and it was that 
thought that took possession of the apostle's mind. 
And what does he say to us in the accomplishment 
of that purpose? "For me to live is Christ." That 
was the enthusiasm that took possession of his soul ; 
but it did not end there. That kind of enthusiasm 
that I am talking about this morning does not end 
with human life. For listen to him: "And to die is 
gain." Think of an enthusiasm that makes one all 
the more enthusiastic after he is dead. I think of 



CHAPEL TALKS 107 

the apostle now after eighteen hundred years of 
enthusiastic life, more enthusiastic than ever, enthu- 
siastic in the service of his Master. And I do not 
know but Paul is sent to the earth to help in the 
bringing in of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the in- 
visible Paul, in us, among us. 

What you and I need is to get hold of a life pur- 
pose that will burn in our hearts with holy enthu- 
siasm and teach us to work out this result that 
Christ came to accomplish, the destruction of sin, in- 
justice and wrongdoing. 

I like the enthusiasm of President Roosevelt. I 
commend his enthusiasm to you. And what is it 
that burns in that man's heart? It is the desire to 
make this nation pure and right and good and true, 
and to bring our citizens to a holy patriotism and 
to the service of what is right. Can anything be 
nobler than that? I like to see you enthusiastic in 
your play; but remember this is only temporary; 
a greater enthusiasm ought to take possession of 
your souls and should be begotten in you now, the 
enthusiasm of the apostle Paul, to help make this 
world what it ought to be. O, let us here in this 
school catch this purpose, and set our hearts on fire, 
and pledge ourselves each to the other that when 
life opens to us and play ceases for us, the great 
purpose of our life shall be to do good, to glorify 
God, to serve Christ and our fellow men, to make 
this world purer than we found it. Won't you catch 
that holy fire? 



io8 CHAPEL TALKS 

A Steam Engine 

Yesterday I saw a magnificent engine standing in 
the B. and M. depot in Boston. I was waiting for 
my train to start, and I looked at that wonderful 
machine. The fire box was full of burning coal. 
The boiler was full of steam at a high pressure, and 
the machine was singing away, waiting for the touch 
of the engineer, to get off, and go with its freighted 
train to its destination. 

And I fell to musing, "O, how like a human soul 
is that machine! What wonderful analogies there 
are between an engine and a human spirit." Shall 
I tell you what I thought about it? 

That fire box full of burning coal — what does 
that represent ? The human intellect. What is the 
fuel you burn in the fire box of the soul ? Thoughts. 
Now, you can dump cold thoughts in there, thoughts 
without any fire in them, and you will never get any 
steam, just as you can fill the fire box of an engine 
full of unlighted fuel and you will never move the 
machine. You must have your thoughts on fire if 
you ever amount to anything. You can read all the 
literature in the world, and if it is not on fire — if 
there is nothing in it that burns in your soul — it 
won't move you or do you any good. But take 
thoughts and put them in a soul and set them on 
fire, and what will come to pass? Feelings, feel- 
ings. 

Now, there is a great variety of feelings in the 
human soul. They can be classified as physical 



CHAPEL TALKS 109 

feelings, such as appetites, or desires of the heart 
for something; or affections, the soul going out to- 
ward some object with holy enthusiasm. How do 
you awaken these feelings ? By thinking, by putting 
fuel in the fire box, by putting thoughts in the in- 
tellect. When you think about a good Christmas 
dinner it will make you hungry ; it starts the appe- 
tites; you long for the good Christmas turkey. 
When men think about money and what money 
will bring to them they begin to feel a craving in 
the heart for money. So the desires are stirred by 
thinking. The ambitions are aroused by thinking — 
that is the fuel that you have to put into the soul. 
A man who never thinks will never feel. Feelings 
are the product of thinking, just as much as the 
steam is the product of the burning coal in the fire 
box. 

But of what use is feeling, of what use affection, 
of what use desire, if you don't let the feelings down 
on the will — if they do not touch the soul and the 
forces of action? That engine might stand there 
full of steam to all eternity, and it never would move 
until the engineer opened the valve and let the pres- 
sure of the steam down on the mechanism ; and then 
it starts off with a shout of joy. Just so it is with 
a soul. You can think and think forever, and feel 
and feel forever, but if your feelings do not touch 
your will, you might as well be dead. Take that 
executive power out of the soul — the will, the power 
of choice, of volition — and of what use are you? 



no CHAPEL TALKS 

Your feelings must take hold of your volitional 
power, of the whole mechanism of the soul, before 
you will become a living force. 

And right there stands the engineer, and he it is 
that brings all the feelings of the soul to bear upon 
the will. And who is that engineer? The soul it- 
self. Now, the engineer was under no compulsion 
to open that valve and start that engine. He could 
have said, "I won't do it; steam on, O engine, sing 
on, O safety valve, but I won't move you." He 
was free, you see. So is the soul. No matter what 
feelings you have, no matter what sense of duty 
there may be in you, no matter what longings to be 
great and good — you must do something, you must 
resolve, you must use your will, or you will be a 
nobody forever. 

Now, there is another lesson that we have not 
time this morning to touch upon, a very valuable 
lesson. I may speak to you about this hereafter. 
But there is a wonderful illustration of a soul in an 
engine. Study the analogy, will you not ? 

Vocal Organs 

I once met a lady who had all the poise and bear- 
ing of a princess. Her gracious manner was very 
pleasing, and had she only been silent, the charm 
would have been delightful. But she opened her 
lips and spake, and, alas! the charm was broken. 
The voice came from the upper part of her cranium, 
high, piercing, ear-splitting. The voice repelled me. 



CHAPEL TALKS m 

Young ladies, there is a great charm in the voice 
if it is musical, rich; and there is great repulsion 
in a voice that is rasping. I meet with a word very 
frequently in my reading that has in it a great deal 
of meaning — that word is raucous. Please look in 
the dictionary and see what it means — raucous. A 1 
raucous voice is something terrible. God has given 
to you one of the most wonderful instruments and 
organisms that ever were created, and put it in your 
throat. It is the vocal organism. It is a wonderful 
instrument, delicate, easily injured, and yet sus- 
ceptible of marvelous cultivation. We inherit voices 
of different timbre and of different influence in 
speech. Some of us have very sweet voices natu- 
rally and some rather rough and rasping. Neverthe- 
less, a rasping voice can be cultivated so as to take 
away its filelike notes. 

To cultivate a voice, to guard it, to save it from 
harsh tones, is one of the first fruits of true culture. 
I do not know of anything in modern life that is 
more likely to ruin the charm of your voice than 
modern athletic yells. Can it be true, gentlemen 
and ladies, that this nation has been saved from dis- 
solution only to be conquered by its enemies ? Can 
it be true that the youth of this nation have accepted 
the rebel yell as the expression of its sport-life? O, 
if you had ever heard the rich cheer, the open- 
throated hurrah of the Union soldiers on the battle- 
field, it would have charmed you. It was inspiring. 
But to hear that sharp, rasping rebel yell ! Well do 



ii2 CHAPEL TALKS 

I remember the first day of January, 1862, when I 
first heard that ear-splitting yell. It came to us in 
the midst of the zip, zip of the bullets. Can it be 
true that we have accepted a modified form of the 
rebel yell as the means of expressing our love of 
sport ? Well, let the boys crack their vocal organs 
if they want to; but, young ladies, don't you do it! 
I beg of you, cultivate rich, sweet tones. I beg of 
you, as you would not draw a file over the delicate 
strings of a violin, do not rasp your vocal cords with 
these athletic shouts. They will ruin the voice. 
Cultivate sweet tones. Remember it is not very 
pleasing to hear the quack, quack of a duck, or the 
caw, caw of a crow. Let us use our vocal organs 
as God intended them, to bring out sweet sounds, so 
that your conversation may not be that of a high, 
rasping order, that raucous sound that we hear 
sometimes. Won't you remember this ? It is a part 
of culture to have a sweet voice. Do not tear it in 
pieces by this modified yell of the playground. 

Ivy Vines 

Every year our departing class is accustomed to 
plant an ivy vine. I have watched the development 
of those vines with great interest. If you will go 
and look at our building, its artistic front, you will 
see the result. These little vines that are put out 
are very tender and liable to perish. But there is a 
vegetable instinct in them that aspires to something 
higher than the ground. They do not put out their 



CHAPEL TALKS 113 

shoots and little tendrils around spears of grass, for 
they know that these will perish very soon, so they 
attach themselves to the solid granite. If you will 
go and look at these vines on the gymnasium or on 
the front of this building, you will see that they are 
reaching out for some little crevice in the granite or 
some little protuberance on the brick to which they 
can attach their little tendrils, delicate fibers, almost 
microscopic — but their aspirations are always up- 
ward. You will notice these vines aspire to the top, 
they are not satisfied to lie on the ground. After a 
while they may branch out to the right or the left, 
but they always climb upward and always attach 
themselves to the strong wall with a firm grasp. 

I have studied these ivy vines and I have learned 
lessons from them. It is very easy to tear up a vine 
soon after it is planted, before it gets its roots deep 
in the ground ; it does not take much strength to tear 
away the delicate fibers and little tendrils ; but after 
years of growth no human power can pull up these 
roots, no human strength can tear away these ten- 
drils ; they are as strong as the walls of the building 
itself. So I have learned my lesson. 

The soul has tendrils, as well as the ivy plant. 
And if you attach them to the ground you will 
surely fail. If your faith and your affections are 
attached to the things of this world, what is left 
you? You never can get up. Thank God, in my 
boyhood there came a great aspiration into my life 
to mount higher. And I threw out the little tendrils 



ii 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

of the soul and the little, delicate fibers of faith and 
attached them to the Christ, the Infinite Strength, 
and they have grown and grown, always upward, 
until no human power, it seems to me, or human 
temptation, could tear them asunder from that In- 
finite Strength, that marvelous Personality. They 
grow into every fiber and being of the Christ life. 
May it be so with you ! In your youth, aspire up- 
ward. Like the ivy plant, lay hold of infinite 
strength. You are invited to do so. Throw out the 
delicate fibers of your soul, your faith, your affec- 
tions, all your choices, upward, climbing higher and 
higher, until you become almost one with the infinite 
God. That is what the good Spirit will lead you to 
do. We sang this morning about that safe Guide. 
That is just what he will lead every soul to do. Lay 
hold of the Christ and infinite wisdom and grow in 
grace and in the knowledge of him. What these 
ivies do by instinct let us do by free choice. Let us 
not consent to lie in the mud and spread out our 
lives on this perishing earth. Let us lay hold of 
something that is massive and infinite, and it will be 
our support and joy forever. When you look at 
these ivy vines imitate them, imitate them! 

Self-Mastery 

If you were to burn a thousand tons of coal under 
a million gallons of water in an open vessel, it would 
amount to nothing. There would not be an ounce 
of power left you. You would evaporate all the 



CHAPEL TALKS 115 

water in the open air and no power would be left 
for your use ; but you can take a single ton of coal 
and put it under a closed boiler, under ribs of steel, 
and evaporate it and it will carry 3/ou to Boston, 
it will do the work of your home, it will help you in 
ten thousand ways to accomplish the ends of life. 
It then becomes a power. 

It is just so with human emotion. I believe in 
excitement. I have no sympathy with a soul that 
is cold as ice — I want the heart life. God himself is 
filled with emotion, and your heart and mine should 
be when great truths are presented to it. A soul 
that cannot be roused by the wonderful revelations 
of God's Book as to our relations to him and to each 
other and our duties to ourselves is a soul that is 
dead. And when these claims and obligations are 
brought to us every heart should be thrilled with 
intense emotion. But that emotion must be con- 
trolled, regulated, brought under the dominion of 
the will, or it will amount to nothing. You may be 
stirred to the very depth of your being, excited al- 
most beyond the possibility of self-control, it will 
do you no good, or anybody else, unless you seize it, 
lay hold of it with a masterly grip, bind it as with 
bonds of steel, aided by the Divine Spirit, bring it 
into subjection to some great, holy inspiration. 
That is what life means. 

In my young manhood I passed through ten years 
of intense excitement. It began in 1856 and ended 
in 1866. It began in a whirlwind and it ended in a 



n6 CHAPEL TALKS 

cyclone. You have never seen such hours as I 
passed through in '61, when this whole nation was 
aroused with intensest feelings, excited beyond the 
possibility of representing it in human language. 
And yet this nation caught out of that excitement 
a holy inspiration, and that inspiration carried us 
through the Civil War. It led to the consecration 
of soul, body, and spirit of the young life of this 
nation on the battlefield. To do what? To save 
this nation from dismemberment and to free the 
slave. It became an intense conviction and an in- 
tense emotion and an intense heart life to accomplish 
the great result. O, what an hour that was to every- 
one ! How it broadened us, how it consecrated us to 
great purposes, under the leadership of God! Let 
me tell you the inspiration was the result of prayer. 
This nation got on its knees in '6i. We know but 
little of the intensity and agony of prayer that was 
carried up to Almighty God in those cyclonic hours, 
and God came and consecrated our excitement and 
our emotion to the supreme end that he had in view, 
and we succeeded. 

Young people, if your religious excitement, if 
your religious emotions aroused by the presentation 
of gospel truth, do not make you better scholars, if 
they do not lead to richer consecration to duty, it 
will not amount to much. Your spiritual life de- 
pends upon your now seizing these feelings, utiliz- 
ing them, controlling them, bringing them into 
subjection to a holy inspiration. What is that in- 



CHAPEL TALKS 117 

spiration? To join the great hosts of God in 
bringing this world back to Jesus Christ. If you 
can catch the meaning of these feelings, if you can 
utilize them, if you can consecrate them, they will 
become mighty spirit forces in your soul, working 
upon the machinery of mind, heart, and will to make 
you a servant of the infinite God, useful in society, 
and a joy and an everlasting blessing to yourselves. 
Can you do it ? You cannot do it alone. O, I want 
every young heart that has been stirred here now, 
quietly, in the silence of your own room, to take 
yourself to your knees and ask of Almighty God, 
"What means this feeling in my heart, and what can 
I do?" If it leads to the cry of the apostle Paul, 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" it will lead 
you to the same sublime life that it led him, for if 
there ever was an enthusiast, and if there ever was a 
man whose soul did thrill with excitement of the 
highest emotions, with the most consecrated and 
sacred affections, it was the apostle Paul; and he 
should be an example to us now. From this hour, 
let us say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 
and may you bring all these impulses of your young 
life in subjection to God's answer to your prayer. 
God has a work for every one of you. I covet for 
you that you consecrate you** young lives to the 
work of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth, 
either by consecrated money gained through busi- 
ness, honest business, or else with the gift of your- 
self in honest, earnest, vital speech to those who 



u8 CHAPEL TALKS 

need your words of sympathy, of instruction, and 
help. Let us take now the excitements of the hour 
and master them, by the help of God, and consecrate 
them to the great ends of life. But now your first 
duty is scholarship, earnest work, godly living, 
faithful prayer, forming the habits of a true Chris- 
tian life. Can't we do that? Can't we begin now? 
If so, the coming of our brother to this town and to 
this school will never be forgotten by any of you, 
and will be a source of gladness and song through- 
out eternity. 

A Genuine Life 

Our last Sunday school lesson gave us some of 
the experiences of Samson, consecrated from his 
birth to deliver Israel from the yoke of Philistine 
bondage. Great physical powers in those days were 
more important in battle than to-day. It is the small 
man who makes the best soldier now — he presents 
less surface to the enemy, and because he is more 
wiry and capable of enduring fatigue than the large 
man. But it was not so in that age. A man of co- 
lossal stature, of great muscular power, was the 
leader and victor in the battle in those times. Hence 
God endowed him with superhuman energy for the 
purpose of freeing Israel from the bondage of the 
Philistines. Samson was a wonderful man phys- 
ically. What a football player he would have made 
in this day ! All of the colleges of the nation would 
have been bidding for Samson. He could have had 
his education free and a thousand dollars salary a 



CHAPEL TALKS 119 

year to play football in almost any college in this 
country. No man could hold him. 

And yet, what did he do with it all? Endowed 
as he was, what use did he make of this superhuman 
energy? Was he faithful to his trust? Did he 
say, "I am responsible to God for my great strength, 
and to him I must make answer" ? We have been 
talking to you the past week or two about the use of 
great forces. We have contrasted two men in their 
use of their money. But money is not the only 
power that God gives to us. He gives to one man 
physical strength; he gives to another great intel- 
lectual gifts of one kind or another. But for all 
these endowments we are responsible to God. And 
what use do we make of them ? What did Samson 
do with his great strength, given him that he might 
release Israel from foreign dominion. He wasted 
it in self-indulgence, in riotous living, in sport. For- 
getting that he was accountable to God, he simply 
used these great energies, loaned to him for a pur- 
pose, to make a laugh. Samson was the great sport 
of the world — an illustration of fun as an end of 
life. Whether he tied the foxes' tails together, or 
whatever he did, fun seemed to be the end of his 
existence, without regard to his responsibility to his 
Maker — a life wasted, a life lost as a great joke. 
And only when his eyes were put out, and in utter 
darkness he seemed to repent of his past, he began 
to fulfill his mission by bringing down in ruin the 
leaders of the Philistine host. 



120 CHAPEL TALKS 

Now, there is great peril in these days to young 
people in view of our personal accountability to 
God. Some one said one day to Mr. Webster, "Mr. 
Webster, what is the greatest thought that ever en- 
tered your soul?" Webster bowed his head in 
serious thought and answered, "The greatest 
thought that I ever had in my mind was my per- 
sonal accountability to God." And wasn't he right? 

You are given talents of one kind or another. 
What do you propose to do with them — use them 
for your own pleasure, or, under the stress of duty 
and love, do you propose to use them to the glory of 
your Maker and the well-being of your fellow men ? 
Take your literary societies, and there is a constant 
battle going on, for there is an element in every 
literary society that is simply after fun and frolic; 
and there is another element that seeks to lift these 
literary societies to usefulness, to the culture of the 
intellect, in preparing us for the great conflict of life 
before us. Which shall master? It is a constant 
conflict going on in your societies now. How will 
you spend your time — for sport, for play, or for 
real, vigorous exercise of the soul? This same 
battle is going on in every school and college in this 
country. What is the end of life here — fun, sport, 
or a full and complete preparation, with a sense of 
duty to guide us for the coming conflicts? Now, 
play is a good thing. There is a time in life when 
play is the only pastime of a child — God made it so. 
In the early years of infancy and childhood young 



CHAPEL TALKS 121 

people naturally take to play ; because they are grow- 
ing they need bodily vigor, and play brings it out ; 
but there comes a time when play must gradually 
give way to duty and to solid work. The apostle 
said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
thought as a child ; but when I became a man, I put 
away childish things." Samson did not do that — he 
was always a child. Now, what is the end of life to 
you? What should be the overmastering and con- 
trolling passion of your hearts? You are facing 
duties and great responsibilities. Let play be a 
recreation. Let it be a pastime for the sake of 
higher ends. That is its office. A 1 man who hasn't 
any fun or love of fun or humor in his nature is to 
be pitied. But a man who makes fun and humor the 
end of his life is to be despised. He has sold out his 
birthright. In all your sports let them be secondary 
to the work you have in hand now. Go to your 
gymnasium, laugh and shout and play, and when 
you have finished that and the hour of recreation is 
over, then to your work, your books. You may not 
relish it ; but it is your task, it is your duty. Do it 
as unto God, and you will be fitting yourself for the 
various responsibilities of life. 

Be Clean 

We wish you all a happy new year. We can only 
wish it — we cannot give it to you. It is for you to 
make it happy or otherwise. The responsibility 
rests with you. 



122 CHAPEL TALKS 

I want to speak to you, however, out of the ex- 
perience of threescore and ten New Year's Days. 
Young people ought to accept counsel from those 
who have seen much of life. I think I appreciate 
some of the means of true success, and I think I 
understand some of the causes of great failures in 
this world. And now from this experience I want 
to say a word to you this New Year's morning. It 
is a fitting time to say it. 

If I were where you are — fourteen to seventeen 
years old, or more — I would adopt certain principles 
to govern my life. One great principle I would 
adopt. I would not allow my habits or conduct to 
be shaped by the conduct of all the rest of the world, 
unless my common sense approved. Some people 
say, "Everybody does so." What if everybody 
does? Everybody may be wrong. I want to be 
right. I would not imitate the masses if my com- 
mon sense proved to me that the masses were mak- 
ing a mistake. I would stand alone in the right. I 
would form my conduct and habits by a higher 
standard than public sentiment or public conduct. 
That is the first great principle I would give you 
this New Year's morning, out of the experience of 
more than threescore years and ten. 

Now, having given you that principle, I would 
adopt another purpose. I would be clean. I would 
live a clean life, in body, soul, and spirit. I would 
have a clean mouth. A liberal use of a toothbrush 
adds to one's self-respect, A pig has more self- 



CHAPEL TALKS 123 

respect than to use tobacco. I would have more 
self-respect than a pig. I would not touch it in any 
form — it never was made to be put into a man's 
mouth, for the mouth should be clean. Now, an 
unclean mouth leads to a great many temptations 
and poor associations. How often in riding in a 
clean railroad car I have seen a young man get up 
and go to the smoker; and I never pass through a 
smoking car, with all its filth and debasing atmos- 
phere, without feeling that it is one of the vestibules 
to perdition. And that comes from having an un- 
clean mouth. I would keep in a pure atmosphere, 
the purer the better. I would keep my tongue pure. 
I would not use slang with it, neither would I use 
filthy profanity. Think of using the name of the 
infinite Christ in vain! Think of the debasing in- 
fluences of impure speech ! Think of the uncleanli- 
ness of the mind that can use a tongue in defaming 
the pure character of the infinite God ! Ah, now, if 
I were where you are, out of the experience of a 
long life, I would say I would keep a clean mouth 
at any cost. 

More than that, in order that my mouth might be 
clean, I would keep a clean mind. I would have my 
thoughts clean. And what disaster I have seen in 
this world from low thinking! I would read the 
best books I could get hold of. I would seek the 
purest associations in life. I would seek for the 
noblest type of thoughts that my mind could enter- 
tain. I would feed on them. I would get the best 



I2 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

of poetry and the best of literature; especially I 
would have the rich suggestions that fall from the 
lips of the Christ. 

And I would keep a clean heart. I would get that 
at any cost — a heart free from selfishness, Godless 
ambitions, and those aspirations that are created by 
a corrupt public sentiment. It was the great Master 
who said, "Blessed are the pure in heart : for they 
shall see God." If I were where you are I would 
pray for the vision of God more than all else. I 
would want to see just as little of the devil as pos- 
sible. I would not seek for the slums, except to cure 
the slums. I would seek to behold the pure char- 
acter of the Infinite and to be like him. That would 
be the highest aspiration of my heart, if I sat in the 
seats where you sit; and thus I would be elevated 
and purified and cleansed, so that I might be happy 
in the society of the good, and only happy in the so- 
ciety of the good. I would fit myself for that select 
society that must be clean to enter into the heaven, 
for nothing that is filthy can ever enter there. 

Thank God, the spirit of this institution is to be 
clean. Only a clean life can be tolerated in this 
school, or those who are aspiring for it or who give 
promise to seek a clean life. That is the spirit and 
purpose of this institution this New Year's morn- 
ing. Yes, if I were one of you I would pray, 
"O, God, make me clean, body, soul, and spirit; 
thus alone can I reach the high destiny of an im- 
mortal soul." 



CHAPEL TALKS 125 

Sunlight 
Last week one of the illustrated papers gave us 
a number of photographs of a certain section of the 
sun. There was a black spot on the surface of the 
sun, and some little distance away there was a dark 
cloud, shaped somewhat like a long-necked squash. 
These photographs were taken rapidly, and they re- 
vealed that that dark cloud was moving very fast 
toward that round black hole. In a very few mo- 
ments it reached it and then with inconceivable ve- 
locity rushed into it and was lost, swallowed up in 
that round hole on the sun's surface. It was esti- 
mated that the cloud must have been moving a 
hundred miles a second. When you remember that a 
hundred miles' velocity in an hour means a tornado 
you can appreciate what must have been the rapidity 
and the marvelous action on the sun's surface of a 
hundred miles a second. What a mystery is the 
sun ! Astronomers are doing their best to solve it, 
but they are perplexed with its enormous problems. 
How little they understand about it! They know 
some things, and other things are almost beyond the 
possibility of conception. Now, that sun, that mar- 
velous body in the heavens, is the source of light to 
us. You and I and all vegetation about us would 
perish in an hour if you were to blot out that sun. 
We virtually live in it. Its relations to us are so 
intimate ! There is one very remarkable fact, how- 
ever, about it. Dr. Conn, professor of biology in 
the Wesley an University, is employed as one of the 



126 CHAPEL TALKS 

investigators in the Storrs experiment station in 
Connecticut. That experiment station is sustained 
by the United States government. Very frequently 
he sends me pamphlets concerning the results of 
their biological investigations. His department is 
very largely that of investigating the sources of 
purity and impurity in milk. Those investigations 
are wonderfully entertaining. They show us that 
there are two distinct classes of bacteria — one al- 
most essential to the purity of the milk, and the 
other class of bacteria pollutes the milk and destroys 
it for human purposes. Now, if you can develop 
the good bacteria you will have milk that will be 
preserved sweet and pure; if you develop the in- 
jurious bacteria the milk sours, becomes noxious, 
and is destructive to human life. These investiga- 
tions reveal this fact, that sunlight, pure sunlight, 
develops, multiplies, and energizes the good bacteria, 
and the same sunlight weakens and destroys the bad 
bacteria. This is a marvelous fact. Mark you, the 
same sunlight does it — develops the good, destroys 
the bad. Hence that experiment station has begun 
plans for barns in which farmers may keep their 
cattle and produce pure milk. And these barns must 
be full of windows to let in the air and the sunlight. 
If you will reflect now on the actual situation in 
this country you will find a great many barns ex- 
clude the sunlight, the cattle are kept in pens where 
there is no light. Such dark and dismal stables en- 
courage and develop noxious bacteria and weaken 



CHAPEL TALKS 127 

the good. If farmers would have good milk they 
must have sunlight on their cattle and in their 
stables. That is the practical result — the same sun- 
light that purifies destroys. 

If you read the eighty- fourth psalm, you will find 
there a marvelous statement, "The Lord God is a 
sun." I have thought of that so much! I have 
meditated upon it, but I never dared to preach a ser- 
mon on that text — it was too vast, too illimitable — 
"The Lord God is a sun." What mighty forces 
exist in the sun — all regulated by law, motions that 
reach a hundred miles a second, and yet all governed 
by an omnipotent will! What wonderful lessons 
for us ! O, this is a marvelous fact, that the pres- 
ence of God, who is a sun, gives life and joy and 
sweetness and energy to the loyal and obedient and 
the good ; and the same sun, the same Presence, is a 
devouring fire to the disloyal, the disobedient, the 
selfish, and the wicked. Here revelation harmonizes 
with science. The same power that gives gladness 
to the good soul brings wretchedness and perdition 
to the bad soul. One of the most marvelous sen- 
tences that were ever penned fell from the lips of 
Jesus Christ, who represents God on earth and 
among the nations. Speaking of the wicked he 
says, "The wrath of God abideth on him." Just 
as the sunlight abides on the bad bacteria, so the 
face of God is a frown, is darkness, is death to the 
wicked. 

There is one distinction between good and bad 



128 CHAPEL TALKS 

bacteria and good and bad people, one marked dis- 
tinction. The good bacteria cannot help being good 
and the bad bacteria cannot help being bad ; but the 
very gist and glory of the gospel is this, that bad 
people may become good. By their own choice, by 
submitting to the provisions that God himself has 
established, the disobedient and the lawless may be- 
come obedient and holy. If the wrath of God abides 
on us forever, it will not be his fault, but ours. We 
will have it so. O, may the good Spirit help you and 
me, here and now, to hear the gospel cry, "Come 
unto me, and I will give you a new heart, and I will 
make you good, and I will fit you for my eternal 
smile, which is health and life and peace" ! 

Christmas 

It has been the wish of my life to visit Palestine. 
Providential circumstances have prevented. I have 
never seen the Holy Land. If, however, I should 
ever have the privilege, I should go up to Jerusalem 
from the coast by railway, and then take an hour's 
ride to the southward until I came to Bethlehem. 
Sitting there on the slope of the hillsides of that 
village, I would look out over the most wonderful 
spot on this earth. Three thousand years ago, in 
imagination, I would see Ruth reaping and glean- 
ing in the barley fields. A little while after, I would 
look out over those valleys where David went to 
school. I would look upon the greatest university 
in this world ; I call it David's university. I had a 



CHAPEL TALKS 12$ 

suggestion by the speech of the blind man yesterday- 
afternoon, and I may some time in the future talk 
to you about David's university. He touched on it 
yesterday, and it opened my eyes to a great field of 
truth. But that is not all. Over that wonderful 
section of the world's landscape I would look upon 
fields illuminated by angelic life; I would hear in 
imagination angelic voices. We may consider that 
we have quite a good orchestra ; we are glad to listen 
to the sweet music of that orchestra; but I do not 
think that our orchestra ever could compare with 
that oratorio that was heard at Bethlehem — angelic 
voices singing the song of the birth of Jesus Christ. 
It seems to me that I should live a year in an hour 
if I were permitted to sit upon the slopes of Bethle- 
hem and look out over those fields where such mar- 
velous historic events took place. 

We are approaching the anniversary of the birth 
of Jesus Christ. I wonder when you get to your 
homes and are in the midst of these anniversary 
days, amid their joys and blessings and their out- 
spoken happiness — I wonder if you will remember 
that they are but an anniversary of what took place 
at Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago. Can 
we dispense with Bethlehem? Can we ever forget 
Ruth, that wonderful pastoral poem that has no 
equal in human language in its simplicity, in its 
purity, in its beauty, in its unfoldings of the heart 
life of womanhood? Can we ever forget the home, 
the birthplace of David, and the well of water with 



i 3 o CHAPEL TALKS 

its sweet fluid from which he longed to drink when 
driven away by his enemies? Can we ever forget 
that wonderful oratorio of heaven, bringing to us 
good will, peace on earth? Do you know what it 
all means? It means the beginning of hope in hu- 
man history. All the earth before the birth of Jesus 
was dark and desponding, when his birth opened 
the light of the future. All the human races had 
no hope until that night when the angelic choir 
sounded out of the skies, "Peace on earth, good will 
to men." I want you to remember what Christmas 
means. I want you to turn back to that wonderful 
gift, the greatest gift that could come to a human 
soul. Some of you may have rich presents from 
your parents, presents that you have coveted, that 
will endure for a time. Remember that all earthly 
presents will perish, they soon lose their value to 
us; but here is a gift, here is a present that grows 
more and more precious as the centuries roll on, 
the gift of God to man, the gift of the little Babe 
of Bethlehem — "silent night, starry night," but 
heaven sounded out its good will to humanity. 

O, when we say, "Thank you," for what our par- 
ents give us at Christmas time, may every heart 
look up and devoutly say, "Thank you, Father," 
for the gift of Jesus Christ. If we have not this 
spirit, we forget what Christmas means. If we can- 
not thank God out of a full heart, what use is it to 
thank our earthly friends for what they give us? 
Let us have hearts of gratitude at Christmas time. 



CHAPEL TALKS 131 

We wish you great joy in your homes. We wish 
you many presents and tokens of love from your 
friends. But, O, human heart, forget not the 
greatest of good gifts, the gift of Jesus. For if you 
and I ever reach the richness of heaven, we will join 
in a song that will never end, a song of thanksgiving 
to Him who gave himself for us, for revelation 
teaches us that the great oratorio of heaven that 
shall never end is this — "Salvation to our God and 
to the Lamb." I want you all to enjoy the Christ- 
mas spirit and remember the greatest of all gifts. 
When you hold in your hand anything that your 
friends have given you that gives you joy, I want 
you to think of that greater gift that you cannot 
hold in your hand, for it is too infinite to be handled 
by human hands — it can only find its resting place 
in human hearts that love Him forever. 

Faith 

I told you last term that some time in the future 
I should talk to you about the university of David. 
The subject was brought to my attention by some 
statement made by the blind man who lectured to 
us a few weeks ago. 

The university of David — what did it give him? 
I do not know whether he studied any foreign lan- 
guage in it, or that he was enabled to solve any alge- 
braic problems ; I do not know that he acquired any 
mental discipline in the line of our text-books that 
you study ; but I do know this fact — that university 



132 CHAPEL TALKS 

developed in the heart of David a great faith. That 
word "faith" is a theological term that some people 
think is of little consequence, a kind of illusion of 
the mind; but let me ask you this question: Is it 
possible for a man in this world to achieve any great 
results without faith ? Faith is essential to all great- 
ness. There never was a man who has shaped des- 
tinies in this world, or helped to do it, who was not 
a man of great faith. What is faith ? Faith is the 
soul trusting something. Take away the faith of 
the soul and what is left but weakness? Now, the 
great faith that was developed in the soul of David 
was trust in the living God. And what did it do 
for him ? Did it ever occur to you why it was that 
David accomplished on the battlefield what no other 
soldier in the army of Israel dared to attempt? Did 
you ever solve this problem, why all the soldiers of 
Saul drew back and feared that great giant, that 
great athlete Goliath? David faced him in victory. 
See him as he goes down into that valley, meeting 
the challenge of Goliath, without a spear, without a 
sword, with nothing but his shepherd's staff in his 
hand and his shepherd's bag on his thigh in which 
were five smooth pebbles, and his shepherd's sling in 
his right hand, going down to meet Goliath covered 
with armor, with a spear like a weaver's beam, the 
great giant of the Philistines. See him now as he 
approaches Goliath. The great athlete disdains 
him; he looks upon it as a joke, that a little boy 
should come to attack him, the great soldier of the 



CHAPEL TALKS 133 

army of the Philistines, and he says to him: "Come 
here, young man, and I will give your flesh to the 
fowls of the heavens and to the beasts of the fields." 
And what does David say? "Thou comest to me 
with a sword and spear and shield, but I come to 
thee in the name of the God of hosts and the armies 
of Israel, whom thou hast defied." There you see 
the victory of faith, faith in God. And he smote 
the athlete, cut off his head, and did what no soldier 
in the army of Israel dared to do, because he lacked 
David's faith — the faith he got in his university. 

I want to show you this morning that such faith 
as that is a development, it is a product. Some of 
you may say, "Why, God put it in him." Well, 
there is a sense in which the Divine Spirit inspires 
great souls ; but nevertheless, great faith is a human 
product. While God gives us the faith faculty just 
as he gives us the faculty of memory, it is the use 
we make of that faculty that determines whether 
we shall have great faith or not. Now, David had 
the faculty that God had put in him exercised in his 
university, and there gained this mighty faith that 
gave him the victory over Goliath. Please remem- 
ber, now, that faith is a product. We make it. It 
is not absolutely and arbitrarily the gift of God. 
The faculty may be, but the use we make of it — 
upon that depends whether we shall be men of great 
faith or not, and it is the use that determines. Now, 
where and in what way did David develop that fac- 
ulty that produced this faith in his soul? I have 



134 CHAPEL TALKS 

not time this morning to develop that ; I am simply 
pointing out to you where David got his great faith 
— in his university, by the course of life that he pur- 
sued. And in the future, in my talks to you, I want 
to illustrate this great fact and show you how you 
can develop just such faith as he possessed and how 
you can miss it. 

Solitude 

I spoke last week of the great faith of David. 
I said that faith was developed by his manner of 
life. Now, what were the conditions under which 
that faith was produced? They were two: first, 
solitude; second, solitude improved in a peculiar 
way. 

I want to talk this morning about the first — soli- 
tude. David was a shepherd boy, and a shepherd 
is much alone. Some years ago I read a magazine 
article on the great sheep- ranches of California, and 
I was impressed with this fact. It stated that the 
shepherds are so lonely, so hungry for human 
brotherhood, that they frequently become insane. 
A shepherd is one who is out under the starry 
canopy with his flocks, alone. Now, that solitude 
is favorable for meditation. There is nothing to 
distract one's thoughts when you are in solitude. 
You can concentrate your mind upon any subject 
you wish. My attention was called to this subject 
especially by the remark of the blind man who spoke 
to us. He said, "We do not ask for sympathy. We 
have spiritual compensations that you know not of. 



CHAPEL TALKS 135 

We are deprived of our eyesight, but that is favor- 
able for the concentration of the soul upon truth. 
All the faculties of the mind are developed and 
strengthened from the fact that we are blind. Our 
minds are not distracted by the many pictures that 
distract you. Hence memory becomes more power- 
ful, more tenacious ; hence the reasoning powers be- 
come strengthened; hence we are in solitude — our 
souls are with themselves, studying and investigat- 
ing and delving for the truth. We are like men who 
are delving down in the mines, bringing forth 
precious fruitage by our toil." The law partner of 
Abraham Lincoln said this of him — it was his cus- 
tom, at times, to lie for hours on his back on the 
office floor, his eyes shut, thinking, thinking, think- 
ing. He abstracted himself from all his surround- 
ings and lay there with his eyes closed, thinking on 
the great problems of human society, studying out 
the great principles underlying the Constitution of 
the United States, delving into those great prin- 
ciples that concern the rights of humanity — alone, 
thinking. 

Now, solitude is favorable for reflection and 
thought. The distractions of social life are taken 
away, and we are alone with ourselves. I want to 
say to you this morning that there never was an 
era in the history of civilization so unfavorable to 
the formation of great faith and great character as 
the time in which you live. There are perils to-day 
that were not known to our fathers — perils that 



i 3 6 CHAPEL TALKS 

threaten to make us superficial and frivolous; and 
those perils are the lack of solitude. Modern so- 
ciety is one vast field of distraction. There is 
scarcely any solitude in the home. The children, 
seeking frivolity and excitement, are out on the 
streets, attracted by the glare of the electric lights 
and the beautiful colors that are displayed every- 
where in the stores to awaken an appetite to pur- 
chase ; while the parents are called out by the many 
lodges and the societies and the shows that are 
multiplying continually the distractions of our so- 
cial life. If it is not the excitement of the ball games 
it is the excitement of the dance and the theater — 
distractions on every hand to take us out of our- 
selves, and to lead us to live in our senses, in the 
eyesight and in the hearing of the ear, and there 
is no time left to us to think ; solitude is broken up 
and we are never alone. I have heard young girls 
say, " I do not like to be alone, I like to be in so- 
ciety." O, you poor, frivolous, superficial creatures, 
you who have been talking that way. Your life is a 
life of excitement, and you find your best pleasures 
there rather than in great thoughts. O, I am touch- 
ing upon one of the perils of the hour, not only to 
scholarship, but to character. 

I come into this school Sabbath afternoons in the 
quiet hour, and I pause to ask myself, "What does 
this mean? Is there anybody in this building dur- 
ing this quiet hour, the hour devoted to solitary 
meditation and reflection on life and its great prob- 



CHAPEL TALKS 137 

lems ?" and I say, "O, it is good ; if we can only im- 
prove this hour as we ought to, what precious re- 
sults will come to these young lives !" O for more 
quiet hours in our school life! I know this — in the 
past, many parents have sent their children away 
from the high-school social life to this institution 
that they might have more solitude and freedom 
from social distractions. They wanted their chil- 
dren to learn to think and to have broad visions of 
life and duty, and they thought they could not find it 
in the social life at home, there was so much of it. 

Now, I want to say that solitude will not make 
perfect character ; but it is favorable to the develop- 
ment of great character. But there must be a bal- 
ance between solitude and society. Solitude is 
favorable for gathering great thoughts and forming 
great purposes ; but society is necessary for the cul- 
ture and the expression of what we have gained in 
solitude. An excess of either is faulty and inju- 
rious; too much society makes frivolous character; 
too much solitude lacks the polish of expression that 
is essential to perfect development. What we need 
is a perfect balance of the two. Do you not know 
that one of the great questions that are being dis- 
cussed all through this nation to-day in our educa- 
tional system arises from the fact that these social 
distractions lead to perverted development, and 
there is no solitary hour for the production of great 
scholarship or great thought fulness or great char- 
acter ? 



138 CHAPEL TALKS 

Now, David was a lonely man, lonely because his 
circumstances made him lonely, and he used those 
hours in profound thought. What did he think 
about? I cannot tell you this morning. I will tell 
you next Wednesday morning what he thought 
about. I will tell you how he improved those hours 
of solitude, and I will point out, then, I trust, an 
illustration of how you should spend your hours of 
solitude in order to the development of that great 
faith and the noble character that David possessed. 

The point I make this morning is this : Social dis- 
tractions are antagonistic to great scholarship, to 
great faith, to great character. We must be alone ; 
we must reflect ; we must meditate if we ever hope 
to be great; and social distractions destroy those 
conditions that develop the greatness of the soul 
life. 

How David Improved Solitude 

Solitude is only opportunity. Like money, it may 
be a blessing or a curse. It is a blessing when we 
use it rightly, a curse when we abuse it; and we 
have the choice whether to use it correctly or not. 
Christianity does not indorse the hermit life at all — 
no man is made good by absenting himself from so- 
ciety. Our life is to be lived among our fellow men. 
Solitude is simply an opportunity to get ready to 
live that life and to live it well. 

Now, what did David do with solitude? Lying 
out there on the green grass on the plains of Beth- 
lehem, guarding his father's flocks, what did the 



CHAPEL TALKS 139 

boy David think about? What were the uppermost 
questions in his soul? They were these. As he 
looked up at the starry canopy above him he asked 
himself these questions: "Who made these stars? 
Who lifted these mountains round about Jerusalem? 
Who made me ? Who is he ? Where does he live ? 
What is his nature? What claims has he on me? 
What are my relations to him ? What duties have I 
to perform to him?" These are the subjects that 
occupied the soul of David in his solitude — the 
greatest topics upon which a human soul can dwell. 
Algebraic formulas are good ; the classics may be a 
blessing; the sciences may fit us for earthly life; but 
all these are secondary compared with the questions 
that started up in the soul of David. Now, such 
questions as these come naturally to childhood. 
Helen Keller, in her autobiography, tells us that 
when she was sufficiently educated by her teacher to 
get some glimpses of things that are, these questions 
came up in her heart : "Who made me ? Who is he ? 
What does he want of me?" and, says she, "I fired 
these questions so rapidly at my teacher that she 
could scarcely give an answer before I began an- 
other." The questions that come up in the soul of 
childhood are these questions of cause and our re- 
lations to that great cause. Happy is the boy who 
asks himself these questions and uses solitude to 
answer them. 

Where did David get his answer? There are 
some hints, some slight information to be obtained 



i 4 o CHAPEL TALKS 

from the starry canopy and from nature about us; 
but I want to say that David got his answers out 
of the Book — not the Book as we have it, for only 
a portion of it was in his hands. He had Genesis, 
and there he read, "In the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth." And then he went on 
to read through Exodus and Leviticus and Deuter- 
onomy and Judges. These were the books that 
were in his hands and that answered these great 
questions that originated in his soul. He learned 
there of the long-suffering of God ; he learned there 
of his commandments ; he learned there of his char- 
acter; he learned there of the history of the patri- 
archs, his ancestors; he learned there of the mar- 
velous miracles that led his people out of Egypt; 
he learned there of their wanderings, of the judg- 
ments of God upon them for their sins ; he learned 
there of the nature of God ; he learned there his duty 
to that God ; he learned out of the Book his answers 
to these questions. And when he saw the Invisible 
he bowed his head reverently — there were no ques- 
tions in his heart about myth and legend ; they were 
living realities to David, these miracles of these 
books of the Pentateuch — he bowed his head rever- 
ently in the presence of the Unseen and worshiped 
and adored and obeyed. And his soul grew by what 
it fed upon, and a great faith was begotten in that 
heart in the presence of the Invisible, in the pure, 
miracle-working agencies of the Divine; and when 
the hour of testing came, his faith failed not, not 



CHAPEL TALKS 141 

even in the presence of Goliath. There is your 
answer. God waved aside the curtains of nature, 
the Invisible came out and revealed himself to the 
inner life of David, and he saw his God in the his- 
tory of his nation. 

You ask me a very important question — How do 
you know this ? Where did you get your informa- 
tion? I answer, No man can read the psalms of 
David and not be impressed with these facts. No 
man can read the teachings, the inner experiences of 
David there, as he left these psalms upon record for 
the culture of the world through three thousand 
years, without seeing where David got his faith. It 
was in the study of the Word, reverently bowing 
before the Infinite. And when he got these answers 
he took them to heart. They touched the vital 
springs and he cried out, "The Lord is my shepherd, 
I shall not want ; he maketh me to lie down in green 
pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters; he 
restoreth my soul. ,, Here is where David got his 
faith — out of the Book; out of the history, the re- 
vealed history of God and his treatment of the na- 
tion up to his age. 

Ah, but you say David was inspired? Yes, I ac- 
cept the statement inspired ; but why did God inspire 
him? Because he had used his faculties and his 
solitary hours in such a way that God could use him. 
And all great men whom God inspires for great 
service preceded that inspiration by yielding them- 
selves up to the divine will. You ask me as I come 



i 4 2 CHAPEL TALKS 

to read Abraham Lincoln's debates with Douglas 
where he got his knowledge of constitutional law. 
Where did Lincoln get his mastery of the principles 
underlying human rights that enabled him to 
antagonize and to conquer that great man Stephen 
A. Douglas and march straight to the Presidential 
chair? He got the mastery of these principles, as 
I told you last week, lying on his back in his office, 
with his eyes shut, thinking, thinking, thinking on 
these great problems. And God helped him and 
came and elected him to his great sphere of useful- 
ness and to martyrdom and to eternal honor among 
the nations. God elects those souls to great service 
in this world who improve their solitary hours in 
mastering the great problems of life, not passing 
those hours by dwelling upon the sensuous, the dis- 
tracting, and the ruinous. 

Prayer 

There is a collision at sea. A vessel is sinking in 
the ocean. What is to be done? A man goes into 
his office and sends out a cry for help. He sends it 
out into a dense fog. He sends it out into the in- 
visible air. He shouts to the skies. Who can hear 
him? But a vessel nearly two hundred miles away 
picks up that prayer and turns its prow toward the 
sinking ship and saves hundreds of lives. That is a 
marvelous thing to do. 

And here is a man who mans the ship of state; 
it is wounded and sinking in the sea, and he goes into 



CHAPEL TALKS 143 

his closet and sends out a cry to God. He says, "O, 
God, we cannot stand another Chancellorsville — 
give us Gettysburg." He sends it out into the un- 
known. He sees no God with mortal eye ; he cries 
to the winds, apparently — he shouts to the heavens. 
Who can hear him? But an answer comes back to 
that burdened soul, and he rests in peace. 

Have you read the story of General Rusling to 
which I called your attention last week? Was 
Abraham Lincoln wise in what he did? Was Mr. 
Binns wise when he sent out his wireless telegram, 
he knew not whither ? Both appealed to an invisible 
source for help, and both got answers. Yet you say, 
"What use is prayer?" I ask you, what use is the 
wireless telegraph? But you say, "I can understand 
the wireless telegram, but I cannot understand 
prayer." Can you understand the wireless tele- 
gram ? Can you explain it ? There is not a man on 
this earth who can tell us how one ship can send a 
dispatch to another. The scientists are dumb. 
They know the fact — it can be done, and the answer 
can come ; but how it can be done passes all human 
comprehension. We throw out hypotheses and 
theories to account for these things, but we can- 
not demonstrate that our hypotheses are right. We 
say there is ether in the air and all about us, and 
that explains it. But who ever saw ether? There 
is not a scientist in the universe who can tell us what 
ether is ; and yet we use the something and get the 
benefit of it. 



144 CHAPEL TALKS 

So in prayer — no man has seen God with the 
mortal eye ; no man has touched him with the senses 
of the body ; and yet if the soul in its conscious need 
cries to God he can get the answer that Abraham 
Lincoln got. 

I want to impress upon you this morning the ex- 
ceeding great value of prayer. You are just begin- 
ning the great voyage of life; you are going out on 
unknown seas; there are dense fogs all about us; 
we are liable to have collisions in this world — we 
collide with temptations that we cannot resist alone. 
What are we to do ? When sinking in despair there 
is only one thing to do — to call for help. Send out 
your heart message to the ear that can hear; call 
upon the living God, as Binns called to the Baltic; 
and if your heart be right, and you fulfill the con- 
ditions, you have the pledge that you will be 
answered — though your ship may sink, though you 
may go down to death, yet the heart, the living pas- 
senger, will be saved. No doubt about it. O, don't 
you despise prayer. It is talking to the Invisible; 
but there is One there who hears the cry of the 
humble, the yearning, contrite, needy heart. Do not 
neglect to pray, young people. Form the habit of it 
now. When you feel you need anything, conform 
to the conditions made known and the promises of 
your God, and send out your message. Send it out 
with a heart yearning for an answer, and you will 
get it. If it does not come in just the way that you 
want it, it will come in a better way. It will come, 



CHAPEL TALKS 145 

for God can hear, as well as the Baltic. I cannot ex- 
plain how. O, the mysteries of life! But the fact, 
that is what we want — faith in the fact ; and do you 
know that there are tens of thousands and millions 
who can tell you, "My prayer has been answered." 
"I called unto the hills from whence cometh my 
help," and the help came. Abraham Lincoln said 
that. Tens of thousands have said it. Let us act 
upon it, though we cannot explain its mystery. 

Muffled Sins 

You will find in Harper's Weekly in the reading 
room a description of a marvelous invention. The 
purpose of that invention is to destroy the noise 
made by a rifle when it is fired. It has proved itself 
a complete success, and may be applied to any wea- 
pon, a cannon, a rifle, or a pistol. A deadly shot 
may be fired without so much as a sound. Now, 
there are unlimited possibilities of mischief in that 
invention. It is a fearful thing. Hitherto armies 
could detect the locality of an enemy by the sound of 
the rifle or the cannon, and by this means, this in- 
vention, an army may be fired upon by an enemy, 
and it is impossible to detect where they lie, or from 
whence comes the deadly bullet. Not only that, but 
a President riding out may be fired upon by an 
assassin and none can detect where the bullet comes 
from. The noise, the crack of a rifle now deters 
the assassin. Take that away, and with smokeless 
powder, it is impossible to detect the murderer — 



146 CHAPEL TALKS 

it destroys the evidence at once. You see the fear- 
ful possibilities to the good from the presence of the 
evil with such an invention as this. 

Fortunately for us, there are many sins that re- 
veal themselves to us by the noise they make. So- 
ciety is shocked and locates the sin; the act reveals 
itself — it reveals itself to the actor and it reveals it- 
self to others. Such sins are murder, theft, lying — 
they reveal themselves ; but there are other sins that 
do not make a noise, and they are just as great as 
those that do. They scarcely make a revelation of 
themselves to the soul itself. And the result is we 
do not count them as sins — they are slight mistakes, 
errors of judgment, matters of no account at all. 
Our conscience is not disturbed by such transgres- 
sions as these because they seem to have very little 
self- revealing power. We are deterred from murder 
by the noise that murder makes and the surety 
of its detection. We are deterred from falsehood 
because of the attitude that society takes toward it. 
Such things as these we count sins, great sins ; and 
we congratulate ourselves that we are not guilty of 
such sins as these, these sins that make a great noise. 
But how many of us have no consciousness of the 
sins that make no noise ? This is the peculiar peril 
of cultivated society; sins that make no sound we 
come to regard as of slight importance in the sight 
of God — it is the peril of culture. There are multi- 
tudes of people who are highly cultivated, highly 
moral, their lives are beautiful — they would not 



CHAPEL TALKS 147 

murder, they scorn to lie, they will not steal; but 
they will commit sins just as bad in the sight of God 
without a quiver of conscience. Do you know there 
is no greater sin than to ignore the claims of Jesus 
Christ ? That makes no sound in your soul, does it ? 
Have you not done it, and yet you do not feel 
guilty? It is a soundless sin, and yet there is none 
greater. Think of who he is, and what he has done, 
and what he claims from us ; and we simply are in- 
different to it and pass it by and ignore those claims. 
Can there be a greater sin than that? and yet it 
makes no sound in the soul. It is a muffled sin. 
When God's Spirit quickens us and reveals it to us 
in its true light, as he sees it, then the heart begins 
to quiver. Are we not guilty of this, we who would 
scorn to murder or to steal? Hear the outcry of 
the psalmist, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults" 
— noiseless sins. Cleanse thou me from faults that 
I scarce detect and that make no evidence of their 
existence in my consciousness, secret faults — cleanse 
my heart from these sins. That is a good prayer. 
You and I ought to offer it often. "Keep thy serv- 
ant back from presumptuous sins" — sins of over- 
confidence, sins that belong peculiarly to the moral 
and in the worldly sense to the good, presumptuous 
sins — let them not have dominion over me — that is 
the prayer of the psalmist. He saw there were 
noiseless transgressions, muffled sins, like this inven- 
tion that stifles the crack of a rifle. So it is possible 
for us to harbor hatred and envy and pride and self- 



148 CHAPEL TALKS 

will, sins that the world does not regard as of much 
consequence, but that in the sight of God are as bad 
as anything else. The Pharisee went up into the 
temple and he looked about him and he said in his 
arrogancy, "I thank thee, O God, that I am not as 
other men — like this publican here, a miserable sin- 
ner." He was guilty of muffled transgressions, 
noiseless sins, but he did not know it. He prided 
himself on his morality, but the poor publican cried 
out, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" ; and Jesus 
declared that the one went down to his house justi- 
fied, and the other went away condemned. O, let 
us see things as God sees them. I want you to see 
that invention in Harper's Weekly; I want you to 
look at it ; I want you to read the description of the 
awful possibilities of such an invention as that ; and 
then I want you to think of the awful possibilities 
of these noiseless transgressions that God sees and 
we do not, that God condemns and society does not. 

Parental Training 

The great peril to this nation to-day is pampered 
childhood. It is an old saying that love is blind; 
and parental affection seems to have no eyes. Love 
that is not guided by wisdom will destroy just as 
quickly as it may save. Now, parents seem to think 
that the sterner features of life will take away the 
joy of childhood, and hence they want to have their 
children have a good time. That is the prompting 
of love — to let them do as they please and have all 



CHAPEL TALKS 149 

the enjoyments of the present and childish satisfac- 
tions. Is that wise ? No. 

We have turned away from what is called the old 
Puritan training. That was stern, harsh, loveless, 
but it did make strong character. The old, stern 
training of the grandfathers did bring out the fiber 
of the soul. We have revolted from that, and gone 
to the other extreme. Now our peril is weakness, 
moral weakness. Weakness of character, soul 
weakness, self-indulgence — that is the peril of the 
American nation to-day in the training of childhood. 

We believe that the stern Puritan training of the 
past was wrong, but not wholly wrong — it had in it 
elements of great strength and safety. But we be- 
lieve that the reaction has gone to such an extreme 
that unless it is corrected by wisdom in the training 
of our youth it will lead to a nerveless nation, lack- 
ing in moral power, self-control, strong character. 

O, how many there are who, accustomed to the 
habits of self-indulgence, patronize the soda foun- 
tains, but they cannot patronize the class room with 
good lessons. That is your temptation, to give way 
to self-indulgence, to feed on candy and sweetmeats, 
feed on selfish pleasure, present enjoyments, irre- 
spective of duty, the direct product of very weak 
training at home. 

We have seen it in the past in this school. I shall 
not speak of the present. We have seen it in the 
past — a lack of moral fiber, a lack of heroism, a 
lack of self-control, inability to sit down and get a 



150 CHAPEL TALKS 

lesson, love of ease, love of sweetmeats, distaste for 
wholesome food. Are there any representatives 
here this morning of that class ? God forbid ! 

In God's dealings with his children — and you are 
his children in virtue of creation — please note this 
fact: God's love is healthy; God's love is directed 
by wisdom! God brings severe discipline upon us. 
Why? To bring out strong character. God is not 
indulgent. He does not pamper us. He needs 
heroes. He craves heroic character, strong men 
and women, children who can do their dutv without 
whining; and hence he disciplines us in this life, as 
parents do not discipline their children. God's love 
is directed by wisdom. Would that parental affec- 
tion was directed by wisdom ! Would that parents 
would look to the sturdy character of their children 
more than to mere passing indulgence and joy ful- 
ness. "My life has been hard," says the father or 
mother, "and I want my children to have a good 
time" ; and in leading and directing them according 
to that desire they wrong them. 

Have your parents trained you in that way? 
They have not been your true friends if they have. 
True parents will train their children to usefulness, 
to duty, and to make it a joy and a blessing and a 
gladness, even though it is hard, even though they 
sometimes have to deny you and discipline you. 
They have done it for your good, just as God does. 
But if your parents have not trained you in that 
way, you have the misfortune of having lost useful 



CHAPEL TALKS 151 

lessons, and they have not been your true friends. 
It has been a mistaken love. They meant right, but 
they have made a great blunder in your training. 

Now try and correct it. If you have been trained 
to a life of self-indulgence, to do as you please, to 
have a good time irrespective of consequences, to be 
simply thoughtless and gay and frivolous — if that 
has been your training, now wake up. School life 
means something different from that. Let us cor- 
rect that spirit. Begin now to put yourselves dili- 
gently to your work ; put yourselves earnestly to the 
hard tasks of the day. Get some fiber in your soul. 
Wake up to heroic ideals. 

Silent Influences 

Eighteen years ago this building was built. The 
very best of hard wood was put into the stairways. 
Yesterday I came up the boys' stairway, and I no- 
ticed a very remarkable fact. I saw that the hard 
wood steps are worn, hollowed out, by the tramp, 
tramp of the students for eighteen years. Now, a 
step on a stair is a very small thing, and it is a 
marvel that every step tears out an atom and casts 
it away. You can notice when you go down the 
stairway how worn some of those steps are — hard 
wood worn out by the constant step of boys and 
girls for eighteen years. 

This teaches what great results may come from 
very trifling causes. And as I came up that stair- 
way yesterday it was impressed upon me, "Here 



i 5 2 CHAPEL TALKS 

is a lesson," a life lesson for me, and I want to give 
it to you. The thoughts of the mind — I cannot see 
them; the ideas that have been flitting through my 
soul during these years have made an impression 
upon my spirit. My character has been molded and 
fashioned by the thoughts that I have cherished. 
Those thoughts may have made but little impression 
at the time, but like the step of the boy on the stair 
having torn out an atom of the step, so these 
thoughts have impressed my soul and left their mark 
on me. We cannot think without being fashioned 
by our thoughts. Now, that makes life very respon- 
sible. If our characters determine our destiny, if 
our choices come from our thinking, if our souls are 
shaped by the thoughts of each day, what an im- 
press, what a waste, what power there is in think- 
ing ! Young people, your souls are being impressed 
by the stream of thoughts running through you day 
after day. And what shall be the result? That 
depends on the character of the thoughts. If your 
thoughts are low and selfish, earthly, vile, there will 
be an impress on your heart that will endure forever. 
And in the judgment hour it will be seen, and there 
will be a hollowing out, as it were, of the spirit by 
the thoughts that are shaping our characters. 

We are being fashioned by our associations too. 
It is not a light thing to associate day after day with 
a vulgar mind, with a frivolous character, laughing 
away life recklessly. You may say, "That person 
does not make any impression on me." Ah! 



CHAPEL TALKS 153 

Neither does the step on the stair make a visible im- 
pression on the stairway, but after years have passed 
you will see the impress; you cannot help it. And 
the constant association with a vulgar life, with a 
vulgar soul, with a demoralizing character, will de- 
moralize you. Inevitably it will leave its impress 
there. Therefore, let us choose the best thoughts, 
so that the fashioning of our hearts may be like unto 
the life of the Son of God. Let us choose the best 
associations while we are young and impressible, so 
that our hearts shall show the character of our social 
life here. Beware of the tramp, tramp, tramp of 
thoughts through your soul. They mar or they 
make, according to their character, and now, in our 
youth, every time you come up that stairway and 
see those hollowed steps, remember the thought of 
this morning — "I am fashioning myself; what am 
I making of my soul?" 

Dark Days 

We are approaching the darkest days of the year. 
In December the sun is above the horizon for the 
shortest period of time and below it for the longest. 
It is a remarkable fact that the anniversary of the 
birth of Jesus Christ is the shortest day of the year, 
the longest period of darkness and the shortest of 
light. Now, whether this is the true anniversary of 
the birth of Christ or not, it makes no difference. 
Tradition says this was the time of his birth. And 
so I call your attention to the fact that the longest 



154 CHAPEL TALKS 

period of darkness on the earth was the hour when 
the heavens opened and the glory of the Lord ap- 
peared. 

And here is a lesson for us. We all love pros- 
perity, sunshine. We delight to be in the possession 
of the good things of this life. Human nature 
shrinks from suffering, from darkness and trial. 
We count that man happy who has continued pros- 
perity. We think he is the favored one of the earth ; 
but is he? Isn't it true that the visions of the other 
life, the glory of the hereafter, appear to us gen- 
erally only in the darkest and shortest and most dis- 
mal days of life? Isn't that human experience? 
Prosperity, joy, earthly happiness eclipse the visions 
of God, while darkness, bereavement, sorrow, death 
bring those visions to the soul. It was at the mid- 
night hour of the shortest day of the year when the 
glory of the Lord burst over Bethlehem and the an- 
nunciation came from the angels, "Unto you a child 
is born ; peace on earth, good will among men." 

So it is in the bitterest hours of life we are the 
most likely, if we have faith, to discern the heavenly 
vision. You all covet health and wealth and amuse- 
ment and joy, but is it best for you? These things 
may eclipse the glory of the spirit life. Now, please 
remember, the shortest and the darkest days of the 
year are those that bring to us the Christ, are those 
that bring to us the Christmas joys. So it is in hu- 
man experience. Very often, almost constantly, the 
saddest hours of life, if we take them aright, are 



CHAPEL TALKS 155 

those that show us the bliss of heaven, the glory of 
holiness, the visions of the Master, and the richest 
spiritual joys. So, then, do not consider that all is 
lost if in life you come across dark hours. 

"I thank thee, Lord, for cloudy weather, 
We soon would tire of blue." 

These words were written by one who was a student 
in this school, and it expresses a great truth. Sor- 
row, dark days, bereavement, disappointment are 
often transformed into glorious visions of the spirit 
world and bring us near to God. So let us not con- 
sider that wealth and health and joy and fun are the 
greatest treasures. Let us remember that richer 
blessings may come to us through our griefs and 

tears. 

Life's Dark Problems 

There is no greater human book than Butler's 
Analogy. It is a difficult book to study, its style is 
so perplexing. The great want of our day is to 
have that book written in plain, simple English, its 
arguments put forth in such a way that you can 
grasp them readily. It is a book that disposes of 
a great many objections against the Christian faith. 
Thomas Paine grows red in the face when he reads 
in the Bible that God commanded Moses to exter- 
minate the Canaanites. The reasons are all laid 
down there in the book — because of the corruptions 
of that people. If allowed to live they would cor- 
rupt his people whom he had sent to bring salva- 



156 CHAPEL TALKS 

tion to the earth. The reasons are clear. Those 
reasons have been accepted by some. Thomas Paine 
speaks very devoutly of God. He believed that the 
only revelation of God is nature. He speaks of the 
benevolence of God — ideas that he gained without 
giving due credit to the Christian Scriptures, and 
yet he seeks to overthrow the Bible as a revelation 
from God, leaving only one revelation, the book of 
nature. What would Tom Paine say of the char- 
acter of Almighty God looking down this morning 
on the villages about Vesuvius or the smitten city of 
San Francisco? If God reveals himself in nature, 
what kind of a God is he to bury thousands of men, 
women, and children, many of whom are innocent 
of any personal sin, with a fearful shock of the 
earthquake or the pouring forth of rivers of molten 
lava? If you are going to shut yourself up to the 
revelation of Almighty God in nature, why don't 
you take the awful aspects of nature and draw your 
conclusions as to the character of your God ? What 
right has Thomas Paine to speak of God's benevo- 
lence as revealed in nature, without taking the 
evidence of God's malevolence as revealed in nature? 
Don't you see the rather illogical position of the 
man ? Don't you see how these men reject the Bible 
because of features in it that God is a God that 
punisheth iniquity and sin, and in doing so has, ac- 
cording to the laws of heredity, often carried away 
multitudes who are innocent ? Why could not such 
men see the same great revelations of God in Scrip- 



CHAPEL TALKS 157 

ture as we find in nature itself? The fact is if we 
shut ourselves up to the revelation of nature, O, 
how dark and how confused will be our conception 
of the Deity! But when we come to that master- 
piece of revelation, the Son of God himself, we see 
the heart of God come out, the veil removed, and 
the true nature of God, a God of justice, a God of 
compassion and mercy, revealed in Jesus Christ 
through the cross. 

Do not be deceived by these modern objections 
against the Scriptures. The same objections, as 
Butler shows in his Analogy, that are brought 
against the Scriptures can be brought against nature 
as the revelation of the Infinite. I want you to 
understand that the loving care of God is given us 
in the Scripture, but it is not given us in nature. 
Therein we get a truer conception of God, and 
therein is the necessity of this revelation through 
the great Book that God has given to us to show 
us who he is and why and how he deals with his 
responsible creatures. In the presence of that awful 
catastrophe in San Francisco we see that God is 
master of the earthquake. In the presence of the 
volcanic eruption of Vesuvius we see that the God 
of nature is master of all those forces. Why does 
he permit these calamities? I do not know all the 
divine reasons for his conduct. Why does he com- 
mand certain things in the Scriptures ? He always 
says because of the highest good of humanity. So 
somehow all nature's revelations at last will be re- 



i 5 8 CHAPEL TALKS 

vealed as the work of God, who doeth all things 
well. Let us, therefore, learn to bow reverently be- 
fore the Almighty, accepting his judgments what- 
ever they are, whatever they are intended to be, as 
the rulings of an Infinite Father, who means to lead 
us to himself, if we will only be led in the right way. 

Strong Characters 

Two weeks ago I spoke to you about buildings in 
San Francisco that could not be shaken down be- 
cause of the steel frame within them, drawing from 
analogy the life lesson that we should have strong 
characters, that we may resist the temptations and 
testings of this world. 

Some of you may say, "Whence come these char- 
acters? Are they the gift of God, are they born in 
us, or are they the product of our habits and our in- 
fluences, the methods that we adopt?" That is a 
very important question. Are these strong char- 
acters the result of our own conduct and habits or 
not? 

I once knew a man who had a message sent to 
him from the only President that this State ever 
furnished — Franklin Pierce. And the message was 
this : "If you will help us elect our Congressman in 
your district, you can name your office." That mes- 
sage came to him from the President. There was a 
temptation. How many would have been strong 
enough to resist it ? His answer was this : "Go back 
and tell your master he hasn't offices enough in his 



CHAPEL TALKS 159 

gift to bribe me from my duty as an American 
citizen." Whence came that strong character? 

I will tell you. When he was a boy sixteen years 
of age he gave his heart to Jesus Christ and became 
a disciple of his. And then he made up his mind, 
"If I am to be a true Christian I must know what 
Christianity means." And he formed the habit of 
getting up at four o'clock in the morning, though a 
hard-working farmer's boy, to read — what? Nov- 
els? No. The Word of God, John Wesley's ser- 
mons. How many of you have ever read John 
Wesley's sermons- — O, there is steel in them, fire and 
power in them to make strong character. He read 
John Fletcher's Checks to Antinomianism. How 
many of you know what those books are? Mark 
you, he was a boy in his teens — reading such litera- 
ture as this, studying it, brooding over it, reading 
the finest of biographies that he could lay his hands 
upon, reading histories of his country and of the 
world and of the doings of God among his creatures. 
That was the pabulum that he fed upon ; that was 
the kind of food that he took into his mind ; and it 
made him strong, like these buildings that stood the 
earthquake shock. He had steel girders in his soul, 
strong convictions, a sense of obligation to God and 
man ; and he made up his mind that he would not 
hang his hat on a peg and be useless in the church of 
God, but he would enter into its activities and serve 
his fellow men and his Creator. He did it when a 
boy. And when the shock came, and the tempta- 



160 CHAPEL TALKS 

tions of life assailed him, he was, like his Master in 
the wilderness, fortified, girded, riveted by deep con- 
victions of right and duty to stand the shock of 
temptation. 

I do not know whether what I am about to say is 
true or not. I am convinced there are some in this 
room who can say yes or no from experience. You 
know better than I ; but what I am about to say is 
this : I am told that in our colleges and preparatory 
schools there are men whom we call "coaches" for 
our ball teams, who teach the young men in their 
play to take every advantage of the foe, to cheat 
where it is possible, and to resort to any expedient 
that will beat the enemy. Now, if that be true, we 
are harboring in our schools and colleges the serv- 
ants of the devil, who, instead of producing strong 
convictions of right and duty, are eating out of the 
heart of the young under their instruction all these 
principles of righteousness that lead to successful 
character. Is it so, or isn't it ? Anything to beat the 
enemy, be it fraud, or be it right ; anything to win ! 
Let a young man take that principle into his life 
and build his character on it, and he will bq prepared 
to be a briber or to be bribed, to adopt the principles 
of the devil in his conduct, in business, in politics, in 
society, anywhere. Such teachings are destructive 
of character, and never ought to be permitted among 
young people who are growing up to be American 
citizens, to say nothing of the citizenship of heaven. 

O, no, these characters which are riveted and 



CHAPEL TALKS 161 

girded with steel within, with strong convictions of 
right and duty, are not built that way. They are 
made by the results of their own reading and 
thought and conduct. Therefore, may we all re- 
solve that we will make such characters for our- 
selves, while the line of conduct marked out for us 
is so apparent, so that we may be strong when 
temptations assail us like an earthquake shock. 

Love Triumphant 

One hundred years ago Napoleon was in the 
height of his glory. The whole world seemed to be 
at his feet. He was a great military general. He 
founded his empire on force. And how long did it 
take for that empire to be overthrown ? An empire 
founded on force does not last long in this world. 
It comes to an end sooner or later. There is one 
empire, however, founded not on force, but on the 
attractive power of a supreme affection. That em- 
pire is growing and will endure to the end of time. 
It is the empire of Christ. 

I remember a lecture, when the Civil War broke 
out, by a man who loved to speculate, in which he 
said that secession was the inevitable result of the 
vastness of our nation — that was the substance of 
his lecture. He went on to say that mountain 
ranges in this world form the natural boundaries of 
empires, and that it was impossible that this nation 
should long endure as one because there were di- 
verse interests on the Pacific coast from the inter- 



162 CHAPEL TALKS 

ests of the Atlantic coast, diverse interests growing 
out of climatic conditions; and he built up a mag- 
nificent speculation on the impossibility of forming 
a government in this country that would stand very 
long — therefore secession must be the result, the in- 
evitable political result in American history. 

Now, that man did not take into account two 
things : First, the fact that there are modern inven- 
tions that have revolutionized affairs. We are all 
living in each other's gardens, we are next-door 
neighbors. The Pacific coast is close to the Atlantic 
coast because of the vast system of railroads that 
bind us, because of the telegraph wires, because of 
the telephones that are making us all neighbors. 
There is another force, the force of patriotism and 
brotherhood, the outcome of Christian civilization — 
this is binding the nations together in vast aggrega- 
tions without regard to these centrifugal forces that 
grow out of dissimilarities and climatic conditions. 
The centripetal forces are the stronger. 

Now, the fact is, this nation was never so united 
as to-day. And it will become more united than 
ever before if it is patriotic and under the influence 
of Christian forces and the influence of commercial 
bonds growing out of railroads and telegraphs and 
telephones, to which I have alluded. We are becom- 
ing one, and all the nations of the earth are thus 
being bound together by forces that are unseen but 
that lie in the heart and that make us a unit. 

We have sought to exert upon you these powerful 



CHAPEL TALKS 163 

forces that are unseen, that bring us together as a 
people. We have sought to develop in you patriotic 
impulses, a patriotic spirit. Now, if the people of 
the United States can be governed by the love of 
country, the love of one's kind, the love of hu- 
manity, the spirit of brotherhood, there will be no 
great movements for secession in the future. The 
forces that are centripetal, that bring us together, 
that make us one, will be in the ascendant. That is 
what we want. We want you all to feel that in be- 
ing educated in this school we are trying to develop 
in you the spirit of brotherhood, Christian brother- 
hood, the love of your kind, so that you may be 
bound together in the bonds of patriotism and in 
the common affection of a common race. That is 
our purpose, not simply to educate your heads, but to 
bring your hearts together with a consciousness of 
a common responsibility before God and a common 
interest in each other's fellowship for good. God 
grant that you may not forget the influences that we 
have sought to exert upon you ! 

A Fad 

I suppose it happened in this way: A senior, in 
one of our colleges, conscious of being somewhat 
light-headed, like an inflated balloon, desired to 
balance his head, so he parted his hair in the middle 
and went to college chapel. And I suppose a num- 
ber of sophomores saw what he had done, and the 
next day they parted their hair in the middle and 



i6 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

went to college chapel. And then the freshmen 
caught on and parted their hair in the middle and 
went to chapel. And I suppose there was a visitor 
from one of our preparatory schools visiting this 
college, and he saw the new custom and parted his 
hair in the middle and went to his school duties. 
And, having recently come from college, all the rest 
of the pupils in the preparatory school parted their 
hair in the middle. And finally we noticed that all 
our boys, or nearly all, parted their hair in the mid- 
dle. That is the way it happened. Well, now, I 
look over this body this morning and I see but one 
or two who part their hair in the middle. You see 
it was a passing fad. 

What is a fad? A fad is a custom that follows 
the moon. The moon has its phases. First there 
will be a little silver streak hanging in the western 
sky — that is the new moon; and that increases and 
increases until it comes to the full, shining down in 
all its glory; then it begins to decrease until the 
moon is lost among the stars in the blackness of the 
night. So it is with a fad. It is a very little thing 
when it begins, but it grows and grows, and then it 
declines and finally departs — like parting the hair in 
the middle. 

Well, how did it happen? I suppose it happened 
this way: Some senior was taking a tour in Eng- 
land. And in a London fog he saw a young man 
coming along with his pantaloons rolled up about 
four inches above his shoes. And it struck deep 



CHAPEL TALKS 165 

into his soul. And it drove all other ideas out 
of his mind — he could only think of that; and 
when he came home and entered college again he 
rolled up his pantaloons about four inches above his 
shoes. And the sophomores saw it, and they did 
the same; and then the freshmen all did it. And 
then some boy from a preparatory school, happen- 
ing there as a visitor, saw the new custom, and he 
thought it was the proper thing, and he introduced 
it into his school, and finally it came to us, and we 
see all around boys who roll up their pantaloons 
about four inches above their shoes. I asked several 
boys here why that was done, and they could not 
give me any reason why. They said they did not 
know. But one boy thought he knew. And he told 
me that it was to show their beautiful stockings! 
The other day I saw a boy going along Main Street 
who had on his beautiful stockings, but there was a 
big hole in one of them ! And here is another fad — 
but like the phases of the moon it will pass away. 
It cannot go too soon. 

And that is the way we go on in our earthly life. 
And in a little while all pantaloons will be rolled 
down to their proper dimensions, and then, boys, 
what next ? What next ? 

Now, I have not been talking to the girls. What 
shall I say about the girls ? Well, in some cases, the 
less said the better. And if I do not say anything 
more I will not get into trouble. So I will stop right 
here. 



166 CHAPEL TALKS 

The Plan of Life 

Suppose you were going to build a house. You 
call in the carpenters, the masons, the plumbers, and 
you tell them you want them to build you a house. 
The very first thing they would say to you would 
be this: "Where is your plan?" "Well, I have no 
plan." "Then we cannot build you a house. The 
first thing for you to do is to get an architect to 
draw a plan, and then we will build you a house." 
Is not this what they would say ? 

I spoke to you last Wednesday about the supreme 
life purpose. It was to build a perfect character. 
It was so to live as to bring all our powers into ac- 
tivity, and through this activity to construct a per- 
fect character. All other life ends are subordinate 
to this, or ought to be. But if you are about to 
build a perfect character you must have a plan. 
You can no more construct a perfect character with- 
out an ideal than you can build a house without a 
plan. 

Now, where shall we get that plan ? Some of you 
may say, "Well, I will take the very best man I can 
find in the community and I will make him my 
model." That is a very good thing to do. Always, 
in forming a plan of life, look out for the very best 
character that you can find as an example for you ; 
never take a poor one, always get the best. There is 
no better literature for a young person to read than 
biographies — the biographies of the great and the 
good — because these biographies put before us a 



CHAPEL TALKS 167 

splendid plan of life. But you can select the finest 
characters that you know or ever heard of, among 
human beings, and you will find weak spots in them. 
The best man that your community will afford as a 
plan of life will show some failures. 

Twenty years ago this building was built. And 
the contractor said to me one day, "There is a de- 
fect in this plan ; I cannot put this roof on this build- 
ing according to the architect's plan. There are 
weak points in it; they need to be strengthened/' 
And I said to him, "Correct the architect's plan and 
put on your roof" ; and he did. Now it is just so 
with us. If we select the very best man that we 
ever knew and model our life after his, we will find 
some defective points, some weak spots, in that man's 
character. 

Where, then, shall we get a plan that shall lead 
to perfection of character? Pilate has told us. He 
came out that morning, leading the Christ, and he 
said, "Behold the Man" — the Man. God has sent 
down from heaven to us the plan of a perfect life. 
God has given us the ideal of all true character. It 
is to be found in Jesus. You will find no defect in 
your model. "Which one of you convinceth me of 
sin ?" That is his challenge to the race, and no man 
has ever yet pointed out the weak spot. Take him, 
his motives, his dealings with humanity, his spirit, 
his purposes, his attitude toward God — take him as 
your ideal, and you cannot fail. Now, subordinate 
all other life purposes to that one. Whatever your 



168 CHAPEL TALKS 

business is, I care not, if it is legitimate. Earnestly 
try to make yourself master of your profession, 
whatever it may be; but build upon that model, 
Christ Jesus; and when your life comes to an end, 
though you may be poor, though the world may say 
you have been a failure, yet, having completed a 
character fashioned like unto his, there will come a 
voice out of the infinite saying to you, "Come up 
higher; well done, good and faithful servant, enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." That is success; 
and all else without it is an awful failure. 

Political Slavery 

I believe you have all attended county or state 
fairs, and have seen wild animals, meek and submis- 
sive, led around with a ring in the nose. I never 
look upon an Australian ballot and see the circle at 
the top of the party column without thinking that 
that is the ring in the nose of the people. The 
machine politicians will advise you always to mark 
your ballot in that circle. Vote the solid ticket, no 
matter what is on the ticket — that is their advice. 
They are simply masters, putting a ring in your nose, 
to lead you around like a wild bull. Now, people 
are more and more coming to see that that ring in 
the nose means slavery. Yesterday we had an il- 
lustration in New Hampshire of the people taking 
the ring out of the nose and letting the machine 
politicians "go it" alone. What do you mean by 
a scratched ballot ? We mean this — that the people 



CHAPEL TALKS 169 

propose to do their own thinking, and, intelligently 
as possible, to mark their ballots beside the names 
of individuals and let that ring alone. I thank God 
that I never yet voted a ballot with a mark in that 
ring. I never put a mark there. It is a mark of my 
slavery. I mark the name of every man I want to 
vote for, after studying the man himself beforehand 
with the best light I can get. I hope you will do that 
when you vote. I hope the American people will learn 
that lesson — to study the character of the men on 
the ballot, rather than simply the party column. The 
great feature about the election yesterday was that 
that ring at the head of the party column was let 
severely alone, in a great measure. That is the mark 
of popular slavery to party ism. It is a mark of an 
unintelligent elector. It is a mark of the fact that 
the people who vote vote as slaves. It is not often 
that that party column does not contain names of 
men that ought to be scratched out. Yesterday the 
people did the scratching, and to-day we feel that we 
breathe the oxygen of a freer and a better atmos- 
phere. 

When you go to the ballot box and see the Aus- 
tralian ballot with that circle at the top, just say, 
"There is the ring for my nose, and you cannot lead 
me. I am a free man. I vote according to my con- 
victions of right and duty." If the American people 
will do that we can save our nation from terrible 
calamities politically. That is the great lesson to 
learn from yesterday's voting. 



170 CHAPEL TALKS 

God grant that you and I may be true American 
citizens, rejoicing in our freedom from partyism, 
and yet not despising parties. For parties are neces- 
sary. I am talking about that blind slavery to party- 
ism, that prejudice toward a name, that is becoming 
the peril of the American people. Let us hold our 
individuality in our own hands and allow no man to 
put a political ring in our noses. 

Prophecies 

No man living on the face of the earth, by his 
unaided faculties, can foretell what will be the con- 
dition of New York city a thousand years hence. 
Nobody can rationally deny that statement. There 
is not a man living on the face of the earth who, 
by his own unaided powers, can foretell who will 
be President of the United States one hundred 
years hence, what State he will come from, or what 
will be the conditions of his administration. We 
are limited in our knowledge of the future. And 
yet, more than twenty-five hundred years ago, there 
was described the condition of a city to-day that was 
then in a more flourishing condition than New York 
city. Six hundred and sixty years before the deca- 
dence of Babylon her present condition was accu- 
rately delineated. She was then in a prosperous 
condition — mistress of the world. Her streets were 
thronged with busy men and women. They were 
flanked with palaces surpassing anything in New 
York city. There were works of art, of human 



CHAPEL TALKS 171 

ingenuity and architectural skill that are scarcely 
rivaled to-day. Everything seemed to be prosperous. 
Everything looked toward an eternal future of 
human glory on the earth. And at that time her 
condition to-day was clearly depicted. It was said : 
"Babylon shall be heaps ; Babylon shall be occupied 
by owls; Babylon shall be the home of jackals; 
no man shall dwell there ; no man shall dwell there 
forever; her fields shall not be cultivated; the sea 
shall come up over her ruins." Let travelers go to 
Babylon to-day and they will see that that city is 
but a vast assemblage of heaps and mounds; they 
will see the waters twice every year overflowing 
those mounds and the surrounding country. There 
is a stillness there that is the stillness of death — 
desolation is in all her borders. Owls fly out of 
every cavern; bats there by the million; jackals 
running around among those mounds ; no man will 
stop there overnight. The ruins are of such a 
character that the fields can never be cultivated — 
it is a desolation, and a desolation forever. 

More than twenty-five hundred years ago there 
was depicted the life of a Man. It was told of what 
nation he should come. It was said that he should 
belong to a certain tribe and a certain family. 
It was pointed out where he should be born, and 
when. It was stated what kind of a life he should 
live, what would be the characteristics of his earthly 
pilgrimage. It was also told that he should build 
a kingdom at a certain time in human history; that 



172 CHAPEL TALKS 

there should be a stone cut out of the mountain, and 
without hands, that should smite all the kingdoms 
of the earth and bring them into subjection to him- 
self. It was stated the characteristics of that king- 
dom — unlike any earthly kingdom. It was also told 
that that kingdom should endure forever, a king- 
dom not to be overthrown. And to-day we have 
the record of that Man's life, his teachings, the 
peculiar circumstances of his life and his death — 
all foretold, brought out, depicted just as we find 
it in human history ; and to-day all about us we see 
the kingdom of Jesus Christ bringing all other 
kingdoms in subjection to himself. 

Who gave those prophecies? How will you 
account for them? Could man do it? Is man 
adequate to it ? Where did these distinctive proph- 
ecies, so particular, so clear in their statements, that 
we see to-day fulfilled in human history before our 
own eyes — where did these prophecies come from? 
Please note this fact : they are only to be found in 
one Book, that we call the Holy Bible. I challenge 
the world to show another book in all history that 
has a prophecy in it like these. Confucius taught the 
Chinese people many noble sentiments, but he never 
uttered a prophecy like these. The Vedas of India, 
the great books of Buddha, express many beautiful 
sentiments, the expressions of a rare genius; many 
poetic and beautiful thoughts are to be found there, 
but not a single prophecy. There is not a sacred 
book on the face of the earth that has a prophecy 



CHAPEL TALKS 173 

in it to be compared with those found in the Holy 
Word. These may be man-made; they may be the 
expressions of human genius ; but there is one Book 
that surpasses them all in that it foretells human 
history. Who was adequate to such a task ? Could 
man have written these things? Now we hear a 
great deal said in these days about Jewish literature. 
A good deal is said about the literature of the Bible 
— there is much literature in it; but if you mean 
by Jewish literature that the highest genius of the 
Jewish nation was capable of foreseeing thousands 
of years ahead the destiny of cities and the destiny 
of the great King of kings, we demur. These 
prophecies lift this one Book above all literature; 
it takes this Book out of the catalogue of ordinary 
human genius. We may revere the writings of 
Shakespeare, and they are the works of a genius; 
but Shakespeare was incapable of prophecy like 
these. O, no. There is only one answer. Infi- 
delity may deny that God has anything to do with 
that Book ; but infidelity must be silent in the pres- 
ence of prophecy. God is in that Book. God aided 
the human mind to foretell the history of Babylon ; 
God foretold to us, out of the fullness of his omnip- 
otence and omniscient power, the history of Jesus 
Christ before he came among us ; and these proph- 
ecies will endure the test of history, for his king- 
dom is marching on, and the stone cut out of the 
mountain side that smote the kingdoms that were 
made of clay and of iron will endure forever. 



174 CHAPEL TALKS 

Seeking Truth 
As I came from Boston yesterday and we were 
flying along I looked out over the snowclad land- 
scape, and my attention was arrested by a fact. I 
had not given especial attention to it before, namely, 
that underneath the trees there was a bare space. 
I noticed that as a peculiarity of some large trees 
the ground was entirely free from snow, while the 
space all around was covered. And I began to ask 
myself, "Is this a universal fact, is this true of all 
trees?" And as I continued to examine I found it 
was. The space was not as large under some trees 
as others, but under all the trees there was a small 
space around the trunk entirely free from snow. 
And I said to myself, "This universal fact has a 
cause. What is it?" And then I propounded a 
theory to explain it. The theory was this: Can it 
be true that there is heat in the roots of a tree, that 
the vital force of the tree melts the snow around 
the trunk? And then my attention was arrested 
by the fact that the same thing was true about posts, 
and I noticed the posts and telegraph poles had a 
little space free from snow around the bottom, and 
I said to myself, "That cannot be the solution of this 
universal fact, because there is no vital force in a 
post, there is no heat there." And my theory went 
to pieces. And then I originated another. I noticed 
that the snow had been very damp, and as I left 
Tilton I noticed the trees were loaded with snow. 
And I said to myself, "Now the cause of these bare 



CHAPEL TALKS 175 

spaces under the trees is doubtless due to the fact 
that the branches have acted as a blanket and have 
caught the snow that would have fallen around the 
trunk, and left these bare spots. I wonder if that 
will explain this fact." And then I looked at the 
posts again, and I said, "Yes, the tops of the posts 
have acted precisely as the branches of the trees and 
have arrested the snow that would have fallen im- 
mediately about the bottom, and that will account 
for it." And I said, "I have found the true cause. 
I guess that will stand scientific investigation." 

Now, that is the way science advances, and all 
human knowledge. Our attention is arrested by 
certain facts. Then we ask ourselves, "Are these 
facts universal under similar circumstances?" If 
we find them so, then we begin a process of induct- 
ive reasoning. First we formulate a theory. Now, 
our theories are man-made and our explanations are 
all human. God makes the facts ; we explain them ; 
and we are liable to fall into great errors in the 
explanation of the facts that are undoubtedly real. 
And in order that our philosophy may be true, in 
order that our knowledge may be tested and proved, 
the theories that we advance to account for the facts 
that we observe must hold true in all cases, or else 
the theory is false. 

I want to make an application of this to a great 
many human theories that are now advanced to ex- 
plain the Old Testament, or the Word of God. There 
is such a thing known as higher criticism. Some of 



176 CHAPEL TALKS 

these theories may be true — partly true, but not 
wholly. But when you come to explain that Book, 
mark you, the explanations in all cases are human. 
The facts connected with the Book are divine ; and 
the theories that we propound to explain the origin 
of the Book itself must meet all other conditions 
found in the Book, or we must suspect the theories 
of being false. Now, when you bring forward a 
great many of the rationalistic theories of the pres- 
ent day to account for that Old Testament, you find 
they fail utterly. They cannot be true because they 
do not explain the facts. 

Do not accept human theories and human ex- 
planations too quickly. The path of progress and 
of the world is strewn with theories, scientific the- 
ories that had almost universal acceptance ; but after 
a time it was found by thinkers that they would not 
meet the conditions, and they have been set aside as 
false. So, many of the theories brought forth to ex- 
plain that old Book, not satisfying a truly rational 
intellect, must be declared to be untrue because they 
do not meet the facts. 

I bring this simple illustration in my own ex- 
perience yesterday to guard your thinking. I beg 
of you not to accept man-made explanations of 
great divine realities too quickly. Search them. 
See if they meet the conditions. If they do uni- 
versally, then make them your own. But if they do 
not, cast them aside — they are unsatisfactory and 
erroneous. 



CHAPEL TALKS 177 

Gyroscope 

It is a law of physical nature that when matter 
is set in motion it has a tendency to continue in that 
same plane. It takes a very strong force to turn it 
out of the line of its action. We are all familiar 
with this law in the movements of a top. When you 
set a top to rotating horizontally it will stand on 
a little point like a needle and rotate. It will stand 
upright until its rotation almost ceases, and then 
it will fall over. This is the principle of the gyro- 
scope. A gyroscope is a little wheel. When set in 
motion in a particular plane it is almost impossible 
to move it out of that plane. Doubtless you have 
studied physics enough to see that illustrated. 

Now, that law of nature is being made use of by 
inventors. It is said that a wheel rapidly moving 
in the body of a steamship will keep the steamship 
from rolling, hold it steady. That little wheel rota- 
ting very rapidly has a tendency to resist any motion 
out of the plane of its action. The same principle 
is being applied to a railroad train, and trains are 
now run upon a single track, being balanced by a 
rotating wheel. And it is said when two wheels 
are used, one rotating one way and the other an- 
other, the diverse action will enable them to run a 
curve without the train's falling over on its side, 
and a train can be stopped on a single rail at a 
depot and stand there and will not fall over, being 
balanced by the rotating wheels. That shows the 
persistency of a force acting in a particular plane. 



i 7 8 CHAPEL TALKS 

Is that law true in the spirit world? It is. And 
that law makes life something terrible. When you 
are young and begin acting in your spirit life in a 
particular way, making special choices, developing 
special affections and special lines of thought, the 
tendency of your soul is to continue in that way 
forever. If you begin rotating in the slum plane, 
the tendency is to keep you in the slums forever. 
If you begin rotating in obedience to the will of 
God, with all your affections centered upon him, 
the tendency of your heart life is to keep on rotating 
and going in that particular plane forever. That 
is what we mean by the final persistency of char- 
acter. It is simply acting in a certain manner, and 
when you get in the habit of acting in that manner 
you cannot change your action. Some outward, 
almost irresistible force has got to take hold of 
you if you change at all. 

Now, every one of you, under that law, is decid- 
ing your destiny. As you act now, so will you act 
forever, in all probability. The boy is the maker 
of the man. If you are obedient to your nature, if 
you begin to act with all your powers rotating in 
the plane of obedience to God in your youth, in all 
probability you will be just such a man when you 
come to mature life, and in all probability that 
action will continue throughout eternity. Don't you 
see that, under the law of habit, you are now de- 
ciding your destiny? You take the gyroscope and 
try to turn it out of its plane of action, and you 



CHAPEL TALKS 179 

will find it is almost impossible, when it is rotating 
rapidly. It takes a powerful force to change the 
plane of its rotation. Just so it is with our spirit 
life. O, how necessary that you begin life right! 
How necessary that now your choices and your af- 
fections all come into the right plane of living! 
Mark you, this tendency to rotate increases, the 
velocity is continually increasing, and as you are 
developing your moral character now, so ten years 
hence you will be acting all the more irresistibly 
in that same plane of obedience to your higher 
nature. When I think of this law as I have seen it 
in all my life history in the development of char- 
acter I begin to feel the solemnity and the serious- 
ness of life. 

Is there no hope, then, when you have been acting 
in the plane of lawlessness? Yes, there is hope 
while God can help. If you ask him to change 
your plane of action from the wrong to the right he, 
and he alone, has power to do it. If you have been 
bad in your life you will stay bad forever, unless 
you get God to help make you right. That is the 
law of your soul life. See to it, now in the morning 
of your life, that you are living just as you want 
to live when you pass away. 

Gravitation 

I have in my home a living well, very deep. The 
water is raised by a force pump. Sometimes dur- 
ing extreme drought the water becomes low — it 



180 CHAPEL TALKS 

requires quite an effort to raise it. Right by the 
nozzle there is a spigot connected with the town 
system. If I want water from the town system, all 
I have to do is to turn that spigot, with no effort 
required. Why? Because of the difference in 
gravitation. In the one case the downward force 
of gravitation compels me to force the water with 
considerable effort. In the other case, the pressure 
of gravitation pours the water out of the spigot 
without any effort on my part. 

Now, here is a living illustration of the difference 
between the attitude of some souls toward our con- 
sciences. Sometimes we find it very hard to do 
right. Conscience says to us, "You ought." And 
we reply, "It is hard work to obey conscience." 
Why? Because the affections pull downward, to- 
ward self, toward the world, away from God. All 
the gravitation of our souls is selfish, turning us 
away from our duty; and we find it hard for the 
will to choose to do right. 

But there is another condition of soul life where 
it is easy to do right, even unto death. There may 
come down out of the infinite skies such a pressure 
of affection, such a bond of love that his will will 
be always sweet, even though it demands the sacri- 
fice of self. I hear the apostle in the seventh chapter 
of Romans giving his experience, and he says, "My 
mind approves of the law of God. My judgment 
says his will is right. I ought to obey my con- 
science, but I find it hard. I cannot do it." And 



CHAPEL TALKS 181 

then he cries out, "O, wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me from" this downward pull of the 
world and self? And then he ends the chapter, "I 
thank God through Jesus Christ.' ' It can be done 
through his grace. And then he speaks of becom- 
ing a new creature by the development of the affec- 
tions to what is good and right. And then he says, 
"Now I have found the true key, the pressure of love 
in my heart makes it easy to do what is right — my 
duty is not irksome. I can die for the Master with 
a smile." Ah, what is the difference? The differ- 
ence is in the affections of the soul. The soul pulls 
one way, the judgment and the conscience calling 
unto duty ; but the heart, the selfish heart, is against 
duty, and you find it hard to do it. What an aw- 
ful life it is to live a life of duty when our affections 
all move the other way — the gravity of the soul 
being downward, while the call of the soul is up- 
ward. Now, then, when the gravity of the soul is 
from above, when there is begotten within us the 
love of God, the love of righteousness, the love of 
truth, the love of duty, how easy it is to do it! 
And that is the way to live. 

What do we mean by conversion? We mean 
just that — nothing more, nothing less. What did 
Christ mean by the new birth, when he talked with 
Nicodemus? A birth from above he called it. 
Why? It was just that — having the heart filled 
with the love of God and the love of duty. When 
we have that experience, then life becomes sweet 



182 CHAPEL TALKS 

and duty a pleasure; without it, it is irksome and 
hard. When I draw the water by a supreme effort 
of my will through the force pump, I think of duty 
in a soul that does not love it ; and when I turn the 
spigot and draw the water by the pressure of gravi- 
tation from yon hill, I think of a soul in harmony 
with its God. 

The best thing that I can ask for you young 
people at the close of this term is this — that you 
find your soul so filled with the love of right and 
the love of duty and the love of the teachings of 
your own conscience that you will find it easy always 

to be good. 

Innocence and Guilt 

Our Bible lesson yesterday opened with these 
words: "Men and brethren, I have lived before 
God in all good conscience until this day." The 
high priest commanded those who stood by to smite 
Paul on the mouth, because he thought that he lied. 
Who was right, Paul or Ananias? Had Paul lived 
before God in all good conscience until this day? 
Hadn't he been the persecutor of Christians ? Had 
he not haled men into prison and women into 
jail because they were followers of Christ? How 
could he, then, say truthfully, "I have lived in all 
good conscience" ? Was he correct? Yes. Paul 
tells us himself that as a persecutor he thought he 
was doing right. He tells us that he erred, but he 
erred in unbelief. Can a man, then, be wrong and 
be conscientious? Yes. Is the conscience, then, 



CHAPEL TALKS 183 

an unsafe guide of itself? Yes. Can a man be 
honest and conscientious, and yet, not be right? 
Yes. Ought we, then, to obey our conscience? 
Yes. How are we going to harmonize these ap- 
parent contradictions? 

I answer : You may have a watch in your pocket, 
and the watch will not give the true time. The 
watch may not run just right, and yet ordinarily 
it is a very good watch. In order that you may 
know what the true time is, you must compare the 
watch with a standard; and that standard involves 
quite an astronomical problem. That standard of 
time must come from the heavens — we work it out 
through sundials on particular meridians ; and every 
day our government telegraphs to certain places, 
and a ball is dropped to indicate twelve o'clock 
meridian. You can stand in the streets of Boston 
and see men adjusting their watches to that standard 
of time. That is the absolute standard. It comes 
from the sun and never errs. 

Now, if your watches have to be corrected by a 
standard, so our consciences have to be corrected 
by a standard. Hence you see the necessity of hav- 
ing the right revealed to us. 

There is a philosophy that the right comes out of 
the human soul, and the soul itself adjudges what 
is right. That philosophy is an enormous error. 
The soul has no standard in itself by which to dis- 
cern what is absolutely right. The soul has its 
judgments corrected by a standard outside of itself. 



i8 4 CHAPEL TALKS 

Hence the modern philosophy that we have an 
inner standard and that the standard is our Chris- 
tian consciousness is an error and a most dangerous 
fraud on honest people. The Christian conscience 
can be no correct standard unless conscience be cor- 
rected by a standard outside of itself. 

How am I to know, then, when I am right? 
We have been talking about right. We have been 
talking about the faculty in our souls that discerns 
the right, the conscience, and that impels us to obey 
what we adjudge to be the right. I answer, that 
standard of right must be given us. Whence comes 
it ? How shall we secure it ? That is the question. 
Now, a man may be conscientious, but that does not 
signify that he is innocent if he does what is wrong. 
A man may do what is wrong, and if he had no 
standard by which he could correct his erroneous 
judgments he would be innocent before God. So 
the apostle Paul, when he said, "I thought I was 
doing my duty when I was persecuting the Chris- 
tians," if he had no possibility of getting access to 
that standard that would have corrected his judg- 
ments, would have been innocent. He did it in un- 
belief. But if he had had the privilege of getting 
at that standard of right and duty, and did not do 
it, then he could not claim to be innocent when he 
was doing wrong. No person is innocent who does 
not apply his conscience to the standard to have it 
corrected. He may be honest in his error; but if 
he could have discovered the right, and would not 



CHAPEL TALKS 185 

do it, he is guilty. If he could not discover the 
right, and was honest in the wrong, he is innocent. 
May there not be heathen who have done their best 
to find out what duty was, and failed, whom we 
would condemn as being sinners, who are not sin- 
ners in the sight of God? May there not be honest 
people sitting before me this morning who might 
have known their duty, who have not tried to find 
out what their duty was, and who are guilty before 
God? Verily so. 

Now, you see how important it is that you and I 
should be serious and thoughtful in applying these 
tests to our judgments of what is right and wrong. 
As the man with the watch pauses in the street 
and observes that ball drop to see if his watch cor- 
responds with it, so you and I should treat our 
consciences in the same way. If there be a standard 
of right, you and I should find it out if we can, and 
correct our judgments by what it tells us. Thus 
alone can you and I be innocent before God. 

Life Choices 

In 1852 a gentleman came from his home four- 
teen miles away to visit my father. During his 
visit he revealed to him the fact that he had been 
down in Virginia and had seen wonderful oppor- 
tunities to make fortunes. He said land was very 
cheap — great plantations could be bought for a 
song — and there was a great opportunity for a 
Northern man to make money. He wanted my 



186 CHAPEL TALKS 

father to sell his farm and go with him and buy 
land in Virginia. My father said to him, "I advise 
you not to go. Certainly I will not, for if there is 
a just God in heaven he will have a controversy 
with that people some day over human slavery, and 
I do not want my family to be there mixed up in 
it." The gentleman laughed at him, sold his prop- 
erty, and went to Virginia and bought a great plan- 
tation, and wrote back what a great success he 
was making of the change, and how foolish my 
father had been. A few years passed away. The 
great thunderstorm burst over the land — civil war 
came. In the winter of 1865, ^ ev - Dr. H., a 
Presbyterian clergyman, who lived in the town 
where this man moved from, went down to work 
in the Christian Commission in Grant's lines, then 
before Petersburg. One day he and a companion, 
wandering through the lines, saw a farmhouse, and 
desiring a drink of water they called at the door. 
The lady who opened the door was this man's wife, 
and she knew Dr. H. instantly, and he knew her. 
They were perfectly astonished to meet under those 
circumstances. She invited them in, and told her 
story: "We lived here happily and prosperously 
until the war came on, and then my husband was 
arrested because, being a Northern man, he was 
suspected of Northern sympathies, was thrown in 
prison, and starved to death. Our three boys were 
impressed in the rebel army, and all have been 
killed in battle, and my daughter and myself are 



CHAPEL TALKS 187 

here without means, without property, and are sup- 
ported by rations from Grant's commissary stores — 
that is the situation; and our plantation is ruined, 
being dug up by the soldiers to make trenches." 
What a judgment! What a fearful result of that 
change in a choice of location for life! 

I am led to make these remarks by the fact that 
next Sunday your Sunday school lesson will be on 
Lot's choice of a home — almost exactly parallel to 
this story that I have given you. When Abram 
gave Lot his choice he looked down in the valley 
of the Jordan and saw that rich valley like the 
garden of Eden. He saw Sodom, but he did not 
see Sodom's wickedness, he did not see the im- 
pending judgments of God, and he cast in his lot 
with the wicked. For what? To make money — 
precisely as this man did; to get a fortune, not 
realizing the judgments of heaven on the wicked- 
ness of mankind. He took his family right down 
into a moral pesthouse because it would pay in 
gold. That was his choice. And you know the 
result. 

I spoke to you last Wednesday on choice in life 
— the fearful responsibility of making choices. I 
spoke to you of the choice of companions. I want 
to speak to you this morning of a choice on a 
broader line than this — the choice of our lifework 
and where it shall be. 

Where shall I locate myself in life? Now, most 
of us are shortsighted enough to choose our life 



188 CHAPEL TALKS 

occupation because it offers to us gold and earthly 
advantages, ignoring moral considerations. If we 
can make a fortune we will plunge into a moral 
pesthouse, and possibly ruin ourselves and ruin our 
homes. Ought we not, in making a choice of loca- 
tion in life, to have some regard to our surround- 
ings? When you come to locate in California or 
Montana or Massachusetts, or somewhere else, 
ought you not to look at the moral characteristics 
of your associations? I want to know if spiritual 
results do not count. Why should we choose alone 
because of earthly considerations? How many 
persons there are who congratulate themselves that 
their children have married into rich families, not 
seeing that those marriages involve associations that 
may lead to spiritual ruin. Ought we not to ask our- 
selves the question, "What is the atmosphere of 
that home ? What are the motives that rule in that 
household ? What am I going to be associated with 
in life?" When you choose a college, ought you 
not to ask yourself this question — not simply, 
"Where can I find a college whose ball team beats 
everybody else?" Ah, I am touching a tender spot ! 
How many boys there are who go to college simply 
because of a football team, not asking themselves 
the question, "Can I get there the best preparation 
for a noble life? Can I get there a splendid edu- 
cation? Can I get there spiritual associations that 
will help to make me a man of honor, of integrity, 
of wide and hallowed influences ?" But I go where 



CHAPEL TALKS 189 

I have the best sport. What do you think of Lot's 
choice? 

Lot was blind to the moral considerations of his 
choice, and so is many a boy who thrusts himself 
into the midst of moral pollution that it would be 
well for him if he kept out of. Now, young people, 
when you choose in life a location, choose com- 
panions for life, when you choose colleges in which 
to be educated — when you choose, choose not wholly 
from human and earthly considerations ; but choose 
in harmony with the highest good of your nature, 
and ask yourself the question, "Will the influences 
that are exerted upon me in those associations and 
surroundings minister to my character, broaden 
my manhood, fit me for what God intended I should 
be in this world?" O, make your life choices broad 
and noble and pure ; especially seek on bended knees 
God's guidance to pilot you in the great decisions 
of life. 

Socialism 

A short time since I was talking with a socialist 
who was exceedingly angry at the inequalities in 
our modern life. Evidently he was a very sincere, 
honest man, who has been reading socialistic liter- 
ature and was imbued with their ideas. One thing 
he announced as true socialism was this — every man 
ought to have the same wages. Said I, "Do you 
mean to say that a man who digs ditches should have 
as much pay as the President of the United States?" 
He said, "Yes." You can see the principle that he 



igo CHAPEL TALKS 

announced in that answer, that without regard to 
any previous circumstances or conditions or de- 
mands on the individual every man should have the 
same pay. Now, suppose you and I were to adopt 
that theory, and society accept it and act upon it. 
What would be the result ? The man who performs 
simple labor that requires no previous preparation 
would get the same return as the man who spent 
years in educating his powers and faculties for the 
higher offices of toil. Some of you are spending 
hundreds of dollars every year to get an education. 
You are mortgaging your future by borrowing 
money to get ready for what? For the more diffi- 
cult, the more trying offices of life. If when you 
have spent all this money you were paid no more 
than a boy who never spent a penny or put forth 
a single exertion to learn his A B C's, what becomes 
of the motive to get an education ? The great forces 
that rule in human nature would be eliminated at 
once. All ambitions for self -culture would be 
destroyed. No matter how hard you toiled or how 
much it cost you to get ready for positions of re- 
sponsibility requiring previous training, you are to 
get no more for it, no return whatever — in this 
world, I mean — for all the exertions you put forth 
— what do you think of such a system as that ? And 
yet this is socialism, in many of its phases. Of 
course, there are different kinds of socialism, but 
that is the socialism that this man had adopted 
honestly and sincerely. 



CHAPEL TALKS 191 

Now, God has implanted within us certain powers 
and spiritual qualities that are aroused and stim- 
ulated by expectation and hope of future return 
in this world. Socialism would fly in the face of 
Providence and destroy all these ambitions. What 
would be the effect on society ? What would be the 
effect on you? How absurd that man's position 
that he entertained so honestly ! 

We must face these great socialistic problems, 
and I want you to see that that is not the way out 
of it. I want you to see in your youth and while 
you are getting your education that such principles 
as these, principles that are held honestly by many 
men, are exceedingly absurd, and in practice would 
be ruinous to Christian civilization. 

Now, we have very great sympathies for the 
unfortunate, for those who do not succeed in this 
world — and there always will be such. How are 
we to modify their sad condition? Not by adopting 
such principles as these ; not by arresting the forces 
that Providence has put in human nature and de- 
stroying them, but by regulating them. It will al- 
ways be true that some people will be poor. Circum- 
stances require this, make it necessary. Some people 
are not endowed with the ability to get along in this 
world with others. There always will be inequali- 
ties in this world in social conditions. But our 
Christianity says to us, "Do not get angry over 
these inequalities in the world; let those who are 
prosperous and strong bear the burdens of the 



i 9 2 CHAPEL TALKS 

weak and help them to the necessities of life, but 
do not give too much attention to the things of this 
world." This is only a short space in human life — 
human life is to run on forever and ever. Give 
more attention to the future and less to the present 
— relatively, I mean. Take thought for the beyond, 
and do not engross yourself with the things of this 
world and become angry over its injustices or its 
inequalities. It is true that the man who has a hard 
lot in this life may have the riches, the infinite 
riches, of the other, if he is wise enough to foresee 
the conditions and to meet the demands of that 
other life. Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate. He 
was too weak and sick to care for himself, but he 
lived for the hereafter. The rich man, for this 
world alone — he was prosperous, he had all the 
good of this world, but cared nothing for the here- 
after. This is the teaching of the Master. But in 
the hereafter one had a palace, and the other — 
what? Young people, if our lot in this world is to 
be hard and trying, let us not become envious of 
those who are more prosperous than we. Let us 
remember that we can all have an eternal inheri- 
tance if we will meet the conditions on which those 
inheritances are given. Let us, trusting in our 
heavenly Father, do our best in this world, and 
have our souls at peace with each other and with 
God. And the other life will compensate for all the 
losses of this. 

And yet, while this is true, let us remember that 



CHAPEL TALKS 193 

if we are prosperous in this world it shall be our 
duty to help those who are honestly poor, and who, 
through inability to provide for themselves, are suf- 
fering for the necessities of life. Let us count it a 
great joy to share our prosperity with those who do 
not attain to it ; and thus we shall grow in brother- 
hood and in love and they in gratitude and in the 
spirit of true manhood. No, no! Let all men be 
paid the same wages, the same price, and it would 
be ruinous to two thirds of the laborers. For they 
would spend it in riotous living and in self-ruin. 
This way is not the way out of our inequalities and 
injustices in this world. Let us, therefore, not 
adopt socialistic principles too readily, lest we bring 
ruin from another quarter. 

Politeness 

All things in this world change, none more rapidly 
than words and their meaning. There was a time 
when morals and manners meant the same thing, 
but it is not so to-day. 

By morality we mean conformity to an absolute 
standard of right. By conformity to that standard 
we mean a conformity of the affections, the pur- 
poses, the motives, as well as the outward conduct. 
That absolute standard is fixed for us by Almighty 
God. Therefore, the meaning of morals is this — 
conformity to the will of God as expressed in that 
standard of right. 

The word "manners" means conformity to a 



194 CHAPEL TALKS 

standard of taste made by man, the general con- 
sensus of polite society, and that conformity does 
not mean conformity of the affections and pur- 
poses and motives, but only of outward and visible 
acts. 

Now, here are two distinct definitions, and they 
are very wide apart. The definition of manners 
leads to the very superficial view of life to that that 
we can see. The definition of morals goes deeper — 
it takes in the inner life and motives, the feelings 
and intents, and God alone knows these inner feel- 
ings. It is the duty of every school, of every faculty 
in every school, to give attention to the morals of 
the youth under their care. It is equally the duty 
of every school and every faculty to give attention 
to the manners of the youth under their charge. 
And yet these two great departments of influence 
are relatively very different. The department of 
morals, moral integrity, morality, is fundamental 
and essential to all good citizenship. There can be 
no good citizenship without morality. There may 
be good citizenship without good manners. There 
can be no good citizenship without good morality. 
That goes to the very basis of character and the very 
organizations of social life. 

Now, manners are more superficial than morals, 
and less important. Manners are important, but 
not as important as morals. Therefore the em- 
phasis should be laid upon morals. There is many 
a noble moral man who lacks in good manners, and 



CHAPEL TALKS 195 

he fulfills his office in life very well, though he is in- 
complete. And there is many a man who is very 
perfect in his manners who is very imperfect in his 
morals. The two can be separated in practice. The 
more important is morality, and yet it is very im- 
portant that manners should be regarded as tending 
to complete human life and character. Abraham 
Lincoln was a man recognized by the world as 
possessing a great, noble nature, moral manhood; 
and yet Abraham Lincoln was not a man noted for 
conventional manners. If you will read in Mc- 
Clure's Magazine for March some of the state- 
ments of Mr. Schurz you will see what I mean. 
He tells us that about a month after the first in- 
auguration of Mr. Lincoln he waited upon him, tak- 
ing a friend from Germany who was accustomed 
to court manners, who wished to be introduced to 
Mr. Lincoln. And Mr. Lincoln invited them to 
dine with him; and he said such was the freedom 
and roistering way of Mr. Lincoln that his friend 
was utterly astounded that a man holding the po- 
sition of the President of the United States should 
be so easy and careless in the conventionalities of 
life. He could not understand it. And yet, though 
lacking in conventional manners — what you would 
call fine conduct — Mr. Lincoln stands out as one of 
the noblest characters in the history of the human 
race, recognized in all times as one of God's great 
noblemen. Now, this is an illustration that splendid 
morals are essential to good citizenship, and splen- 



ig6 • CHAPEL TALKS 

did manners may be wanting in good citizenship; 
but while all this is true, we should all seek the 
completion of human life and character by possess- 
ing, as far as possible, the highest culture in man- 
ners. I want to put this morning before you the 
essentials of genuine manhood and womanhood, 
and I want at the same time to impress upon you 
the importance of that which is not essential to 
great manhood always, but which is highly im- 
portant. Had Mr. Lincoln possessed the culti- 
vated manners of the present President of the 
United States, who came from the aristocracy of 
American society in his birthright, it would have 
been greatly to his advantage as President ; it would 
have saved him from many criticisms. Neverthe- 
less, history shows that a lack of these polite re- 
finements has not taken him from the pedestal of 
fame on which he has been placed by acts of his 
life and by the honors that have been given him. 

While we want distinctly to recognize that many 
a noble man lacks noble manners, yet we want to 
emphasize the fact that noble manners are not to 
be despised, but to be cultivated and sought with 
all the ardor and enthusiasm of youth. 

Reverence 

This afternoon in the city of Canton, Ohio, is the 
funeral of Mrs. McKinley, a woman who has 
touched the heart of the nation because she had a 
heart, and her husband had also. They have become 



CHAPEL TALKS 197 

the representatives of a Christian home in America, 
recognized as such, having always had a family 
altar, even in the White House — a woman of 
marked qualities, noble characteristics, and a woman 
who touched the sympathy of the nation by her life- 
long invalidism. She has passed away. All busi- 
ness will cease in that city this afternoon, as a mark 
of respect for the departed. Isn't that fitting? 
Isn't it proper that the Sabbath calm should fall 
on that city during the hours when the last respects 
are paid to the departed? What would you think, 
under the circumstances, if to-morrow you might 
read the telegram that the baseball clubs of that 
city went out and played ball during that funeral? 
Would you think it fitting ? Wouldn't it shock you ? 
Wouldn't you say, "That is too bad"? Now, there 
would be nothing wicked in the act itself — that is 
innocent enough — but it is unfitting in view of the 
hour. 

To-morrow this nation pauses to drop flowers on 
the graves of its dead soldiers, who gave their lives 
for the boys and girls in this school and in all other 
schools. O, you know little of the agonies of that 
army in the field, its homesickness, its sufferings, its 
privations, its cruelty, its groans, its fatigue, its 
dying murmurs alone on the battlefield. Would it 
be fitting for the boys of this nation to go out and 
play ball in the midst of such scenes, and sur- 
rounded by such situations? Where would be the 
respect shown for the dead ? Ought it not to shock 



i 9 8 CHAPEL TALKS 

us to the very heart that any American boy is so 
lost to a sense of honor, gratitude, and duty as to 
be willing to engage in sports under those solemn 
circumstances ? You will not do that. You are too 
well bred, I hope. But there will be many boys in 
this nation who will do it, and they deserve your 
condemnation, and the condemnation of the nation 
itself. Respect for Memorial Day ought to bring 
the quiet, the calm, of the holy Sabbath, as we re- 
flect upon the past, upon the perils and sufferings 
of the departed, who died to save us from disunion. 
Isn't that so? Shall we not take it to heart? Do 
you know, young people, that one of the greatest 
perils of this nation to-day is the love of excite- 
ment? Isn't that getting the mastery of us? Are 
we not, to a certain extent, wretched unless we are 
excited and shouting in the midst of excitements? 
Have we that national self-control that will lead to 
a love of calmness, deliberation, and thoughtful- 
ness? Are we not wretched when we think, and 
happy apparently only when we are excited ? Now, 
if this nation cannot get control of itself so as to 
love and respect, under proper circumstances, that 
day set apart to calmness, to deliberation, to thought- 
fulness, to meditation, the nation is lost already, 
lost in its self-control. Do you know that this love 
of sport is to-day the peril of American Christian- 
ity, American institutions ? Why, the holy Sabbath 
itself is being asked for to-day in Legislatures for 
ball games! A majority of the committee of the 



CHAPEL TALKS 199 

Legislature of Massachusetts reported a bill to that 
Legislature making legal sports on Sunday. It is 
all a part of the same thing — the love of excitement 
getting the mastery of the people, duty giving way 
to it, and all the barriers thrown down simply be- 
cause we must have sport or be wretched. Now, 
I believe in sport at the proper time, under the 
proper conditions. We must have it — human 
nature demands it, God intended it ; but it must not 
master us; it must give way before the duties of 
reverence and Godly fear, and duties to each other. 
The holy Sabbath day must be preserved, not as a 
day of clamor, O, no, but a day of holy calm, a day 
of meditation, a day of thought fulness, a day when 
humankind, under the best of conditions, will con- 
sider its duties to itself, to its country, and to its 
God. That is the meaning of the Sabbath day. It 
was made for that, made for man, for his highest 
good. Now, then, we want to so control this whole 
matter of sport and play that when a day comes 
like Memorial Day we will all be quiet in the pres- 
ence of the facts of the past, and bow our heads in 
reverence for the memory of those who gave their 
lives for us. And when it comes to the holy Sab- 
bath, we want to set aside everything like excite- 
ment and sport, and very thoughtfully, reverently, 
and gladly and joyfully remember what our God 
has done for us. If we do that, if this nation does 
that and masters its love of excitement, there will 
be no danger from sports ; but when sports will not 



2oo CHAPEL TALKS 

be satisfied until they sweep away all barriers, this 
nation is already gone, its manhood has been sunken 
into wickedness, and it will be incapable of con- 
trolling itself. Let us, therefore, you and I, thought- 
fully, reverently, and appropriately observe Me- 
morial Day. 

Seif-Respect 

There is no better safeguard against life's tempta- 
tions than a genuine, rational self-respect. If each 
one of you can say to yourself, truly, "O, how can 
I be guilty of this mean thing, it is not worthy 
of me?" — if you can truly say that, you are well 
fortified against temptation. 

Now, this is different from pride. Pride origi- 
nates from some real or fancied possession of ours. 
We have some intellectual grace, or strength, or 
brilliancy — we know it too well; or we have some 
personal feature of beauty or charm — and we de- 
light in it. That is the basis of pride. 

But self-respect originates from other ideas. 
Self-respect is based upon this. I belong to a high 
and noble race. I am not an animal. I am created 
in the image of God. And God loved me, loved me 
so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die 
for me, that I might have everlasting life. Now, 
that being the case, how can I do this mean thing? 
That is the basis of true self-respect. And, O ! we 
all ought to have it, cherish it, strengthen it, by 
thinking upon its value, by remembering who we 
are, 



CHAPEL TALKS ioi 

Last Monday I saw a man come into the cars 
with a manacle on his wrist and a little chain at- 
tached to that manacle, held by an officer. I looked 
in his face as he passed along, and I saw that all 
self-respect was gone. By an act of criminality or 
a long course of vice he had sunken down into the 
criminal classes, and he seemed to be devoid of a 
sense of shame. There was a smile, a smirk, "I 
don't care," on that lost man's countenance. 

It is an awful thing when a young person says, 
"I don't care what people think of me." Ah, you 
ought to care. And yet, we ought not to be gov- 
erned supremely by public opinion alone. Self- 
respect should be based on this thought, "I do care 
what God thinks of me." The man who has that 
as the supreme support of his life will be strong in 
the midst of temptation and will be secure when 
hours of great embarrassment and trial come to 
him. 

Now, there is one advantage in good, costly cloth- 
ing. A man who is well clothed, unless he has lost 
his reason through strong drink and has become an 
outcast, will not willingly lie down in the mud. 
How can he soil his costly garments with the filth 
of the street ? You see there is a self-respect that 
comes from being well clothed that keeps us from 
the environment of the mud. 

It is just so with character. If we are clothed 
with the beautiful garments of holiness, if we have 
the Christian virtues in our hearts, just as good 



202 CHAPEL TALKS 

clothing keeps us away from the mud of the street, 
so these Christian virtues will protect us, through 
self-respect, from mingling in the mire of any 
course of iniquity. How can we get down in that 
mire of vice and folly and sin and soil the garments 
of our souls? O, you and I want this feeling of 
self-respect, born of a rational conviction that our 
souls are exceedingly precious; and when we have 
that self-respect we will say to ourselves, "I can- 
not do a thing that is mean, it is unworthy of me, 
I will be true, I will do right, I will stand upright 
in the presence of God and men, I will be what I 
ought to be." 

Young people, cultivate that feeling — self- 
respect; you are the children of God in virtue of 
creation. You have all been redeemed by the 
agonies of Calvary. You are worth an infinite 
price, every one of you. How can you do wrong? 
How can you sin in the presence of these great 
revealed truths of our God? 

Let us, then, be true to ourselves in school life. 
Let us resolve, "I will be a man, pure and true" ; 
"I will be a woman, beautiful in the sight of angels." 
Such feelings as these, such a conviction as that, is 
a wonderful safeguard in the hour of testing. 

Spiritual Force 

Most of you, doubtless, have studied more or 
less physics. You are acquainted with the forces 
that act in nature. You know those forces are two- 



CHAPEL TALKS 203 

fold — attractive and repulsive. The forces of co- 
hesion and adhesion are attractive forces ; the force 
of gravitation is also an attractive force. The tend- 
ency of the attractive forces is to bring all atoms 
together and consolidate them in a mass. If there 
were no other force, all the material of the universe 
would eventually gravitate to a common center and 
form a common ball. But the repulsive forces have 
a tendency to drive the atoms of matter apart. When 
these repulsive forces are superior in strength to 
the attractive forces the tendency of an atom is to 
go away from its fellows. If these forces alone 
acted in nature everything would pass into a gase- 
ous condition, and the universe would be dispelled 
through space. There could be no planets, no sun. 
Chaos would be the result. 

Now, what is true in the physical world is equally 
true in the spiritual. There are two great forces in 
spirit as well as in matter. These may be denom- 
inated love and hate. The tendency of love is to 
draw individuals together. Patriotism is a form of 
love — it makes possible nationality. Take away the 
love of country, and what would become of the 
American people, eighty-two millions strong? 
Would society be possible? Society only exists 
through the attractive force of love. Let hate rule, 
and what would be the condition of the human race ? 
Families would separate, society would disintegrate, 
nations would go to pieces. It is only as the force of 
love rules that society becomes possible. 



204 CHAPEL TALKS 

Now, if you take the repulsive forces of nature 
and try to confine them, as, for instance, the re- 
pulsive forces of steam in a boiler, and let those 
repulsive forces become stronger than the strength 
of the boiler, you have an explosion. These repul- 
sive forces blow to pieces whatever seeks to confine 
them. Just so it is in the spirit world. Let hate 
master love and you have anarchy. 

Take the condition of the American people to-day. 
We are a loyal people, because love is triumphant. 
It controls the national animosity and hatreds that 
grow up between individuals. Take the condition 
of Russia and their hate against the government 
and all that represents law. It is becoming so 
powerful that there may be a national explosion and 
anarchy may be the result. 

It is a peculiarity of our Christian religion to 
create in the human heart the attractive force of 
love, soul for soul, so as to bind us together as one 
people, one race. That makes society possible. 
Christian affection solves all the difficult problems 
of human society, because its tendency is to bind 
us all together by a force that originates in the 
heart, through the grace of God, and thus bring 
all men into unity, into concord, into sweet love and 
lasting peace. 

Let Christianity prevail over this earth and war 
would become impossible. We would want no navy. 
Policemen could be dispensed with. Armies would 
be disbanded, because the superior attractive force 



CHAPEL TALKS 205 

of soul to soul would lead us to dwell together in 
harmony, in peace. That is heaven on earth. That 
may be our ideal of the millennium. But as we 
destroy Christian influence, Christian truth, Chris- 
tian force, hate increases, and we come to our social 
problems, with anarchy, socialism, and a thousand 
other forms of human hatred, and society must go 
to pieces and return to a condition of barbarism and 
savagery. 

I want you to appreciate honor and embrace 
Christianity as the hope of the race. All our future 
is bound up in it. Do not stand aloof from it. Em- 
brace it as the only solution of all human problems. 
It will settle disputes in the home, and the divorce 
courts will be abandoned. Let love rule in all hearts, 
and these destructive forces will cease, and the race 
will abide together in peace. Selfishness is only 
another name for hate of our fellows. It is hatred 
of man for man and man for God that is the peril 
of human society. Anything that diminishes the 
force of hate — I mean hate for individuals, not hate 
for evil, because the hatred of evil is right and only 
helps on the good — I am speaking only of hatred 
toward personality — makes peace possible on earth. 

The Great Consolation 

I have just been taught a great lesson and I want 
you all to share it with me. We have received during 
the past few days scores and scores of letters from 
friends and strangers, sympathizing with us in our 



206 CHAPEL TALKS 

great earthly sorrow. Those letters revealed a great 
fact that has impressed me deeply. Most of those 
letters are from Christian people, who, in addition to 
an expression of their personal loss and deep sym- 
pathy, turn us to the consolations of the Word of 
God. They invoke for us the great sources of 
support and comfort. But there are other letters, 
evidently from persons who know nothing personally 
of this great comfort that comes from the Word of 
God, individuals cultivated, charming in their per- 
sonal characteristics, highly educated, many of them 
men and women of genius, known in circles of 
authorship, who knew our son, and they express 
the profoundest sympathy in most beautiful lan- 
guage, but there is not an allusion in these letters 
to the source of supreme comfort. Why not ? Now, 
that has struck me profoundly. They can go so far, 
and their sympathy is deep, beautifully expressed, 
but somehow they seem to have forgotten the con- 
solations that come from the life eternal. Why is 
that so? Are they devoid of them? Have they 
neglected to sit at the feet of the great Comforter 
and to learn of him? and not knowing the consola- 
tions of our blessed Christianity, they cannot im- 
part them to others. Is that the awful fact ? And I 
have come to see, therefore, the beauty and the rich- 
ness of the consolations of our Christian faith as 
I have never seen them and felt them before. O, 
that these noble, highly endowed, cultivated people 
could only see the cross and the Christ and learn to 



CHAPEL TALKS 207 

love him and be comforted by him ! Now, the great 
consolations that have come to us have come also to 
the many who have written these letters ; they have 
heard the voice of Jesus saying, "I am the resur- 
rection and the life; he that believeth in me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die. I will not leave 
you comfortless, I will come to you and sustain 
you." But here also are many noble people who 
have not learned the blessedness of that language, or 
at least they seem to have forgotten it in this hour 
when its consolations are supreme. That is a sad 
fact. 

If I could only take those persons and talk with 
them individually and point out that fact to them 
as I am pointing it out to you this morning, I might 
possibly lead them to see the great want in their own 
souls. But I want you to learn the lesson, if they 
have not learned it. I want you to learn this lesson, 
that in the supreme hours of human agony and 
bereavement there is no comfort, no human sympa- 
thy, that will compare with the consolations that 
come to us through the Christ in his blessed Word. 
And I want you to have that comfort to go with you 
through life. 

In Memorfam 

(Spoken a few weeks after the death of Frederic Lawrence 
Knowles.) 

The memorial service has come and passed. I 
have been silent before you respecting the character 



208 CHAPEL TALKS 

of the departed. I have preferred to let others 
speak. But there is one element in that character 
that I want to emphasize, and to point out the origin 
of it, for our instruction. 

There was in my son an insatiate longing for 
perfection — perfection in everything — perfection in 
scholarship, perfection in his chosen profession. I 
think that that longing for perfection in scholar- 
ship and in literature widened out, broadened out 
into an insatiate longing for perfection in character 
and conduct. I think the basis of it probably was 
laid in his application to studies. There is the point 
for us. As a student of English literature he could 
not be satisfied with anything that was imperfect. 
I want to give you an illustration of it. In looking 
over the proof of the books that he published he 
could not rest while there was a wrong point, a dot, 
a comma, a single imperfect letter in the text. I 
worked with him on the proof of Cap and Gown, 
one of his first compilations ; and when I said, "Now 
this is perfect. Why do you spend any more time on 
it?" he said, "I shall go over it two or three times 
more — there must be no blunder in this book." I 
have yet to find a typographical error or an error 
in punctuation in his latest book of poems, Love 
Triumphant. It is the result of ceaseless effort at 
perfection. Over and over that text he pored, to see 
that there was not a comma inverted or a single 
imperfect letter in the type. And what was true of 
the mechanical and routine part of these books was 



CHAPEL TALKS 209 

also true of his effort at perfection in the spirit 
and flawless technique. The same earnest, faith- 
ful application was found in everything he did. 

And that passed over into his conduct. I know 
from my close and loving intimacy with him that 
he could not rest until he attained perfection in 
manners, in courtesy, in gentleness — more than 
that, perfection in his conduct, in his relations to 
his fellow men. 

He has been greatly misunderstood by a good 
many people who did not know him perfectly. 
You will find in his poems sometimes hearty, vig- 
orous denunciation of form in Christianity. 
Sometimes he seems to be an enemy of Christi- 
anity. That is all in the seeming. He was an 
enemy of all sham in Christianity, never an enemy 
to Christianity itself. He loved perfection in the 
human life, he sought it for himself, he desired 
it for all others. And in his literary production 
he essayed to point out the distinctions be- 
tween reality, true perfection, and sham Christianity. 
O, how he despised pharisaism! Now, there was 
no one more sensitive to imperfect speech than he, 
to the use of a wrong word or ungrammatical ex- 
pression ; but I have heard him say again and again, 
"I would rather hear an honest, earnest, whole- 
souled leader in the Salvation Army murdering the 
king's English, if I could only feel that his heart 
was genuine and full of love for humanity, than to 
hear a man in the pulpit whose English was flawless, 



210 CHAPEL TALKS 

whose rhetoric was perfect, if he had no heart in it, 
if there was no tear in his eye and no tremor in his 
voice that was genuine." O, how he despised cold- 
ness of soul in a man who speaks the highest and 
richest of truth. Now, that was his spirit, an in- 
satiate longing for perfection in character and con- 
duct, genuineness, perfect genuineness of spirit. 
Where did he get it ? 

How often we have talked together, in the close 
intimacy of our home life, of the Christ ! O, how 
he worshiped the Christ! There he saw what his 
soul craved — perfection — no flaw in Jesus to him — 
sinless, gentle, just, loving, tender, perfect; and his 
soul craved the Christ in his own life. 

Now, that longing for perfection began in that 
accuracy in scholarship, that longing for perfection 
in what he did, and passed over into his moral life 
into the same longing for perfection in conduct, in 
spirit, and in speech. 

Young people, beware of slipshod scholarship. If 
you are a slipshod scholar, you may be a slipshod 
character everywhere. In your scholarship seek 
accuracy. Seek to master the truth of all that is 
before you. He who does that will be likely to seek 
perfection in character and conduct as well. 



1910 



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